Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 25 (5)
But it is not easy to survive.Entering June, the sky is like a dry rag, and no more water can be wrung out.In Hejiapo, there was no rain in the whole June. Every night, people gathered in several layers of courtyard dams to look at the sky. When a crow flew by, they thought it was a cloud wrapped in rain.If you can't wait for the rain at night, you have to wait for the morning, but the sun rises earlier than people; in those days, the sun always rises very early, and the pale yellow moon has not left before the sun comes up to chase the moon away.People think that if it doesn't rain in June, it should rain in July. How can it be possible that it doesn't rain in June and doesn't rain in July?But in July, the rain still hasn't fallen!

At this time, people thought that they should go to worship the Dragon King Temple.In the area of ​​Laojun Mountain, the scriptures of worshiping the Dragon King are widely circulated: "A thunderbolt shakes the universe, go to the three-forked road to calm the gods. Please ask He God, first meet Li Laojun of Laoshan Mountain. There is nothing else to meet my leader, brewing wine and holding a banquet Send the time. The first month comes in the first month, the first month is full, the thunder god is awakened in February, the spring is good in March and April, and there is no need to be alarmed by a small drought in May. The twelve dragons meet in June, and the Milky Way takes the world from the water!" This scripture clearly implies , Dragon King Ao Guang's birthday is the twelfth of June, he doesn't worship on his birthday, I just remembered now that I have something to ask, does he admit it?Are you willing to experience the sufferings of the people?Besides, where can I find the Dragon King Temple?There used to be one in Baiyanpo, which had been burned long ago; even if it was repaired immediately, how could it convey the meaning to Ao Guang's ears?To pray for rain to the Dragon King, one must ask a Taoist priest to do the Dharma and recite scriptures. There is no Taoist temple in Laojun Mountain now. I heard that there was a Yuandi Temple in Caojiayan on the top of the mountain. He Jiapo's oldest Liang Shi has never seen him either.

Without Taoist priests, the Dragon King would not be able to worship. People had nothing to do, so they went to the fields to look at the crops with their hands behind their backs.The whole field was scorched.Large tracts of trees, flowers and plants on the mountain were sunburned to death, and those who did not die could only keep their lives underground.

Hejiapo's rice grains failed!
At that time, the county party committee was holding an enlarged meeting of the whole committee non-stop to carry out the struggle "to defend the party's general line and oppose right opportunism". opportunists".Although the roadbed of the Xuanluo Highway has not yet been laid, for the needs of this movement, all were evacuated and returned to each village.In this movement, some people were beaten down, and some people took advantage of the opportunity to turn up again.In Hejiapo, fortunately, no one became the former type of person, even He Da, who gave up his life to save the yellow jue tree, escaped the disaster. ──He Zhongbao became the latter kind of person.His performance in the "Great Leap Forward" is obvious to all, so he is naturally reduced.Although he has not resumed his post in the village, he still works as a farmer and does farm work, but he is no longer a guilty person, and he can confidently speak from the background to the front stage.

The famine escalated step by step, and by mid-October, edema and emaciation generally appeared in the vast rural areas.The young man, who used to be physically strong, now only has a body of ribs. When he wakes up in the morning, he sits on the threshold, staring at a place with dull eyes, and doesn't know how to get up until he wants to pee.Those hungry flies and mosquitoes were overwhelmingly biting their bodies, faces, heads, and eyelids. Even the dicks of boys without pants were surrounded by the black bodies of mosquitoes. However, they didn't even have the strength to wave their hands.The population of Hejiapo is decreasing day by day.Those people were swollen all over, and they walked out of the house with heavy steps, trying to take advantage of their last breath, struggling to find some food, but just took a few steps, they fell down like a stack of wheat.Don't even try to get up when you fall down.No one cared about the death of one or two people. Hunger entangled them, so that what they thought, saw, and heard were all food!After all the wild vegetables were dug up and the bark was stripped off, someone poured manure into the weir pond to make it grow water plants quickly, and then went into the water to pick up the grass, and put it in the pot to boil without washing it. .Some people died of poisoning, some people died of flatulence because they couldn't poop after eating "Guanyin soil"
One day, Liang's son went to the mountain to dig "Laowa Suan" (a kind of bitter wild grain). Liang boiled two bowls of vegetable root soup with clear soup and little water. Leave it to her son, when it was dark, someone on the slope came to deliver a letter saying that her son had starved to death on the mountain, Liang's first reaction was not to be sad, but to quickly grab the bowl of vegetable soup and drink it down.After Liang drank the bowl of soup, her blunt eyes became brighter, and she looked around, making sure that the bowl of soup had flowed into her stomach steadily, and no one came to snatch it from her, so she let out a long sigh of relief. .However, she suddenly thought of her son who died on the mountain.The young man who died was her only son.She ran up the hill frantically and knelt beside her son's body.The son's eyes were wide open, as if he was questioning the sky.The mouth is also wide open.Liang dug his fingers into his throat, and vomited "ahh", finally vomited out the bowl of soup and poured it into his son's mouth.Strangely, after the bowl of soup was poured down, the young man closed his eyes and mouth automatically, and his bony and humble death appearance became extraordinarily peaceful!

Fortunately, the young man had married three months ago, and that night when her husband starved to death in the field, the woman went back to her mother's house to look for food.The natal family also had no food, but people at that time were looking for hope in despair.Hopeless hope can also support them to live, which is a miracle created by life.Six months after Liang's son died, his wife gave birth to a son named Kuan Huan.Kuan Huan later became a famous barefoot doctor in the middle reaches of Qingxi River.
In this famine season, Chen Yuexiang gave birth to her third child.That is my second brother He Ji.

Chen Yuexiang is such a competitive and strong person, but after giving birth to this child, her body was hollowed out. It takes half a pack of cigarettes to say a short sentence, and she closes her eyes after she finishes speaking, accumulating energy for a long time , to say the second sentence.How she wanted to smell the fragrance of rice, how she wanted to drink a bowl of rice soup!At that time, the wild vegetable soup was also unsustainable. Where could He Da find rice soup for her?At that time, He Jiangao was transferred to Dongba Township Brick and Tile Factory to burn kilns. When he sneaked back one day (the kiln workers are not fake, they not only work during the day, but also work at night-this was boldly called in the regional newspaper at the time For "night battle". The reason why He Jiangao sneaked home was to bring back two pieces of red sweet potato cakes that looked like fingernails from the construction site to his wife and children), and He Da handed the five cents he had managed to make to Jiangao. He said to him: "No matter what you say, you have to buy me a bowl of porridge at Dongbachang." He Jiangao was very troubled.He Da said: "Jiangao, I know you're not fake, and it's not easy to do business this time when I go back, but I can't walk. Once I walk away, she won't be able to survive!" He Jiangao put the money in his pocket, two He put his hand on He Da's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I'll bring you the porridge tonight!" After that, he suddenly yelled angrily, "I don't believe that life is not as important as firing a kiln! Everyone raises a pot!" I’m not alive anymore, so what are you still doing with the kiln? Standing up, your legs are shining, and you’re still engaging in fucking night battles! Tell me, why do you want to fight at night? Why?!”
He Dahe and Jiangao's wife, Mrs. Gu, looked at him blankly.

When He Jiangao returned to the kiln factory in Dongbachang, he was scolded by the factory leader.The boss wanted to slap Jiangao twice, but he was so hungry that he couldn't lift his hands.In the evening, before turning on the lights for the night battle, Jiangao went to the street to buy porridge for Chen Yuexiang.

He ran all over the country, and there was no one who sold porridge.

Jiangao went to intercede with a few shopkeepers he knew before, hoping that they could cook a bowl of porridge for him, even if it was rice soup.The answer was a stone-like silence.Jiangao knew there was no hope, so he returned to the kiln factory.Seeing him crying, the leader thought he had been scolded and felt aggrieved, so he came over to do work for him.Who knew that was not the case.After Jiangao told the reason for his sadness, the leader said: "The one-month mother and child you mentioned (the mother whose child is not full moon) are mainly lack of nutrition. You can go to the pharmacy to buy a bottle of cough syrup. The cough syrup is sweet. Drinking a bottle is good for her. Tonight, you won't engage in night battles, and send it back to her while there is a big moon." After speaking, the lean leader began to cry "cough cough cough".That's not a man's way of crying, it's purely a woman's way of crying.

Jiangao said: "Consolation (thank you) you, comfort you."
The leader waved at him intentionally, telling him to be careful on the road, "When you are very hungry on the road," the leader said, "don't sit down, let alone lie down, starving ghosts like those who lie down. You If you don't obey, I won't be able to see you tomorrow."
Jian Gao walked towards the pharmacy.I went to three houses in succession, and finally bought a bottle of cough syrup for [-] cents, and sent it back to Hejiapo overnight.

He Da kept the door open and waited for Jiangao. As soon as Jiangao showed up in the yard, he greeted him.He didn't see the porridge in Jiangao's hand, only a medicine bottle.He didn't even ask what kind of medicine it was, how much he paid for it, and didn't even express his thanks to Jiangao, he just grabbed the medicine bottle and turned around to enter the house.

Jiangao looked at his back bitterly, stood there for a moment, and left.

He Da went to the back room where his wife was lying.The back room was dark.There is no tung oil, nor kerosene, and when it gets dark, no one lights a lamp on the slope.He unscrewed the bottle cap in a daze, and poured it into Chen Yuexiang's mouth.Chen Yuexiang only took a sip, then immediately pushed away her husband's hand and called out: "Sweet! This is sweet!" Her voice was so loud that He Da was startled.After He Da reacted, his hands trembled with joy, and he urged his wife to drink it quickly.Chen Yuexiang took two more sips and stopped drinking, saying that she was full and asked He Da to drink some too.

He Da only licked the rim of the bottle, saying that he was full too.

They are not pretending, they are really full!
They ate that little bottle of cough syrup for two whole days.When nothing could be sucked anymore, He Da poured water into it and rinsed it over and over again until the smell was gone, so He Da smashed the bottle and licked out the residual juice at the neck of the bottle with his tongue.

Chen Yuexiang finally survived the "confinement".When she came out of the house, she looked at the bright sunshine in a trance, and thought: I probably won't live long.She doesn't know why she thinks this way, it's just a feeling for life.She didn't want to die, and knew she couldn't die; once she died, the family would be paralyzed.

But her doom was almost doomed.Just like my grandma Xu Lian, there is bound to be an irreconcilable contradiction between the strong nature and the self-satisfied world.Chen Yuexiang doesn't lack the ability to maneuver, but she only knows how to flutter among the sparks created by the spear and the shield, she never knows how to avoid them, and she doesn't know how to find the weakness that can break through one after another, the one that can survive. aperture.

She is wasting her vitality.

Just when she felt that her strength was exhausted, she was severely injured by He Zhongbao.

He Zhongbao raised a sheep and a female goat with gray hair and a gloomy face from time to time.One morning when the autumn wind was blowing, He Zhongbao suddenly stood in the yard and cursed, saying that his sheep had been stolen.As soon as He Zhongbao began to scold, his wife Wen Shi and daughter also came out to scold, her daughter was only three years old, but she scolded in a decent manner, imitating her mother, with her left hand on her hip, and her right hand pointing at the imaginary thief, every time she scolded , bend your waist, and point your right hand forward.The scolding of He Zhongbao's family could be heard in several courtyards.

It is really enviable that they can scold people in such a spirit.People also infer from this: his family still has food to eat!
After scolding for a while, He Zhongbao led his wife and children to narrow the field and went up to He Da's courtyard.

In this courtyard, there are no more people, one family has died, another family has gone to seek refuge with relatives, and the Liang family who lives diagonally opposite He Da has also returned to his mother's house to live in his nephew's house. Now, only He Da, Chen Yuexiang and their two sons were still guarding the empty courtyard.Because of this, He Zhongbao's direction is very clear.But on this day, it happened that He Da was not at home, so he went to his mother-in-law's house in Guanmenyan to see if he could get some food at her mother-in-law's house.In the yard, the only adult was Chen Yuexiang.Every time He Zhongbao's family scolded, Chen Yuexiang's heart tightened. Although she was not a thief, she felt uncomfortable being suspected of being a thief.

She felt inexplicably timid, and dared not even go out.

She was nervous for the whole day, because He Zhongbao's family didn't stop scolding until the sun was behind the mountain, and their throats were torn.

He Da never came back.

In the evening, Chen Yuexiang took the cattle and grass brought back with the sick body out of the wooden barn, and was about to pour them into the cow trough (even the cattle and grass were stolen in those days). "Brother-in-law!" It was dark outside, but when she heard the hoarse voice that seemed to pop out of her chest, Chen Yuexiang knew it was He Zhongbao.She felt that her leg was broken, because she heard a cracking sound, and when she fell down, her leg was clearly bent, but she didn't feel the hindrance of the bones.The first thing that came to her heart was sadness.She has a wimpy husband who is too sensible and has two children!She is the backbone of the family.The pathos was so strong it almost overwhelmed her completely.Then, she felt faint and sweat poured out of her head.But He Zhongbao didn't leave.Beside He Zhongbao, there was another person, his wife.Wen's grabbed Chen Yuexiang's hair—her hair was very long, very black, and very clean.My mother, Chen Yuexiang, is not beautiful, and even less so than my grandma Xu Lian, but her black hair is extremely vivid; The rice bag swayed up and down; the back of Chen Yuexiang's head was on the edge of the flower basket. Fortunately, the flower basket was woven by Li Bamboo Craftsman, and it was fine and smooth, so that the back of her head did not suffer too much.Chen Yuexiang was angry, and she wanted to resist, but her body was too weak, she opened her mouth a few times, and then she cried out helplessly: "Kill me to death—"
In the past, He Zhongbao would have stopped when he heard the yelling. However, now he has no charges against him, and more importantly, a "movement" that seems to have no end, one after another, makes him restless. He feels that his roots Floating, seeing that he could not fulfill the entrustment given to him by his father before his death, it is precisely because of this that he is eager to re-establish the prestige of the family in Hejiapo and get back his "root".He fears no one, he has only uncontained resentment.

A few more sticks hit Chen Yuexiang's hipbone. He Zhongbao cursed "thief woman" while beating.His voice was also amplified, he wanted to challenge not only He Da and Chen Yuexiang, but also the whole Hejiapo.

Finally, a few people came from the neighboring yard, and they stood a few meters away, waving torches made of poles.This is exactly what He Zhongbao needs.He threw the wooden stick—it was a lump of wooden stick, the dog-beating stick passed down to him by his father He Huaqiang—slapped Chen Yuexiang on the face several times, and kicked several times hard.Chen Yuexiang couldn't dodge, because her hair was still being pulled by Wen.Her mouth and nose were bleeding, but she didn't have the strength to wipe it with her hands, and she didn't even have the strength to moan, she was as quiet as a corpse.No one came to persuade.He Zhongbao was very proud. He clapped his hands and said, "Ms. Thieves, your man used to steal other people's peas and buy Kunzhang's house, and you killed Lao Tzu's sheep! What else can your son do besides being a thief!" After all, without even looking at the onlookers, he dragged his wife and went home.Walking to the middle of the courtyard dam, he turned his head and said, "I will still settle accounts with you. If you don't pay the sheep, you don't want to be quiet!"
(End of this chapter)