Peasant woman

Chapter 30

On the eighth day of the first month of the Yuanhe year, it was supposed to be a joyous and joyous day, but many places were miserable because of the snowstorm, and even people died of freezing and starvation in many places.A small village near the north called Zhanghe Village is much better.The village relies on the mountains to eat the mountains, and most of the households have food, so there has not been any death from freezing or starvation.

Xu Cao and Fugui were happily busy in the kitchen. Today is the New Year's Eve, so Xu Cao cut half a pork leg, two catties of wild boar meat, and an enema.I made a stewed pork leg with radish, stewed wild pork with cabbage, steamed sausage, and the eggs she had saved for ten days, and scrambled an egg.

She was not willing to kill those two pheasants. The hen had laid more than a dozen eggs and refused to lay any more. Xu Cao planned to keep it and let it continue to lay eggs in the spring of next year. At that time, she would buy a group of chickens After raising them, the chicks grow up and lay eggs, so they can have a lot of eggs to eat.

After Xu Cao finished the dishes, she went to look at the steamed buns and sausages in the back pot. They were not yet fully cooked and looked like they needed to be steamed for a quarter of an hour.

Glancing at the heavy snow flying outside, Xu Cao sighed. The heavy snow stopped ten days ago, but the snow hadn't melted yet, and it stopped for three days. .Chen Ru originally wanted to take advantage of those three days to go back, but who knew that the road was still blocked by heavy snow, and there was no way for anyone to leave. She had no choice but to spend a new year at Yang's house this year.

Xu Yuan was originally wondering why the Chen family was so kind to Chen Ru, and it seemed that they were a little closer than his own daughter. Later, he learned that when Chen Ru's mother passed away, the Chen family raised Chen Ruyi. Over the years, feelings have developed.

Looking at Xu Cao who was staring blankly outside, Fugui pulled her to sit beside the stove, and said with a smile, "Daughter-in-law, what are you thinking."

Xu Cao turned her head and said with a smile, "Master, when do you think this heavy snow will fall? Are the people in our village all right?" It's difficult to even go through the door in this horrible weather.I don't know what happened to the people in the village.

Fugui glanced out, "Daughter-in-law, don't worry, the heavy snow will only fall for ten days, and it will start to melt by then. Although the people in the village don't have much food, they can survive the winter without any problem."

Xu Cao sighed, Huaxue was even colder, but fortunately, going out would not be as difficult as it is now, and now people feel as if they are isolated from the world, and the only people who can get in touch with this month are the Yang family, this feeling It's not good.

Since it was a New Year's Eve dinner, it was hard for the family to separate each other, so Father Yang asked Fugui Xu Cao to have dinner with the big guys.The two brought the cooked dishes and steamed buns to the big table, and the whole family ate happily.Father Yang took out a jar of wine from nowhere, and when the wine seal was lifted, a scent of wine spread in the air.

The Yang family brothers who provoked all sniffed, Fu Gui smirked and said: "Father, where did you get good wine? It smells really good, good wine."

Father Yang smiled and said, "It's been buried for several years, and I'll take it out to drink after watching the Chinese New Year."

A few men drank wine, and the women ate vegetables and chatted happily.After eating this meal for a full hour, Fugui seems to hold a good amount of alcohol, Dapeng, Xiao Tong, and Old Man Yang are all a little drunk, but he is still fine.Today is a happy day, the woman removed the dining table, and the men sat in the room chatting and drinking tea.

The dishes on the dinner table were almost finished. Xu Cao took back a few ceramic plates from home and washed them clean. There were still about twenty steamed meat buns left in the pot. She picked them up one by one, put them in a basket and hung them on the In the kitchen, it was covered with white gauze.

This Chinese New Year, Xiaobai and Heizi each got a steamed stuffed bun, and both of them ate it up in two or three bites, and Xiaobai licked his mouth full of desire.

After packing up her things, it was almost the end of the day, Xu Cao was about to go back to her room for a rest, when she heard a knock on the door outside.She was startled, who is here now?Could it be father and mother?This big snow.Thinking that it might be his father and mother coming over, Xu Cao was so frightened that he stepped on the creaking snow and ran to open the courtyard gate against the wind and snow.

The courtyard door was opened, but there was a small figure standing outside, Xu Cao was stunned for a moment, the figure was trembling, it was a child of six or seven years old.

Xu Cao stared at the child, and after a while hurriedly dragged the child into the house.In any case, let's take it in first, and she knows this child. A child from the same village, named Fang Shitou, lives not far from the Yang family.

After closing the courtyard door, he led the child into the house. Everyone in the room was chatting, and they were all stunned seeing the child. Father Yang looked at the child and Xu Cao, and said doubtfully, "Master, Isn't this Feng Shitou? Shitouzi, why are you here?"

When Fang Shitou heard Father Yang's words, his mouth narrowed, and he burst into tears, "Wow, Uncle Yang, my mother is sick, my father didn't come back, I'm hungry."

Seeing Shi Shi's sallow and emaciated appearance, and hearing that he was hungry, Xu Cao hurriedly went to the kitchen to get two meat buns, and gave them to Shi Shi, who ate them voraciously while crying.After the two buns were finished, he wiped away his tears and raised his face to look at the crowd, "Uncle Yang, it's like this. My father is working in the town and he said he was paid to buy food for the New Year. But since After it snowed, there was no news of my father. My mother said that it was snowing heavily, so my father could not come back. But there was no food at home. My mother and I waited for my father to come back. My father has not come home yet. A few days ago, I only ate and played with food Mother fell ill again, I really had no other choice, so I came out to ask the uncles to borrow some food, but the uncle said that there was no food, that my mother and I were orphans and widowed, and we would definitely not be able to pay back his food in the future. " Shitou said here, whimpering and crying again.

Speaking of this, everyone already knew what was going on. The Shitou family was also poor, and there was no land in the family. The whole family relied on Shitou's father's hands for food.The child's father went to work in the town, but he hasn't come back because of the heavy snow.Shitou and Shitou's mother are waiting for their father's wages and food to come back to live.Now that father has not returned, the life of these two mothers can be imagined.Fearing that the child really had no other way, he went to his uncle to borrow food.

Shitou wiped his tears and said again: "I'm going to go to the uncles and aunts in the village to borrow some food. It's so cold that I can't walk, so I have to knock on Uncle Yang's door. Uncle Yang, can you Lend me some food, and my father will definitely return it when he comes back. Uncle Yang, really, I promise, my father will definitely return the food."

They are all from the same village, so there is no reason for Father Yang to refuse, he said to Chen behind him: "Old lady, hurry up to the cellar and get some food for Shitouzi."

Chen's expression was reluctance, "I don't know where I lost the cellar key, besides, who knows if something happened to Shitou's father in the town, in case his father can't come back in the future, we Who is going to take the loaned food?"

Father Yang became angry when he heard it, "What nonsense are you talking about! What is it that Shitou can't come back? I don't know that the road is blocked by heavy snow now, so he can't come back. Why don't you hurry up and get food!"

Chen was also angry when she heard it, and said angrily: "Why are you yelling at me for the New Year, I just won't go today!"

Chen Ru on the one side saw the two elders quarreling, and was about to persuade him, but Fu Gui on the other side was already pulling the stone and walking towards his house, "Shitou, let's go, uncle will take you to get the food." Xu Cao hurriedly followed go up.

Xu Cao packed twenty catties of brown rice and another twenty catties of rough noodles, then turned around and said, "Fugui, let me send the stone back with you. Hey, this child is also pitiful. Fortunately, it's a cold day He didn't suffer from the cold, and our family is not short of food now, so I will give these to you first, so that they can get through this. By the way." She suddenly remembered something, and hurried to the kitchen.After a while, I saw her come out with some meat buns wrapped in white cloth, and smiled at Shitou: "Shitou, it's Chinese New Year today, you will take this bun back to eat with your mother later, don't worry, your father must be because of the The road was blocked by heavy snow, so I couldn’t come back, you also saw it, isn’t this heavy snow?”

Hearing what Xu Cao said, Shitou burst into tears, "Auntie, you are so kind, Auntie, don't worry, even if my father doesn't pay for the food, I will return it to you later!"

Xu Cao smiled, went in and got three bamboo hats, and gave two of them to Fugui and Shitou, "Xueda, let's take the bamboo hats and leave quickly."

Fugui looked at Xu Cao with a smile and hummed, mentioned the brown rice and rough noodles, and the three of them went out together.

The wind and snow outside were too strong, Xu Cao put on a bamboo hat, and felt much colder when he stepped out of the courtyard, and couldn't help shivering.When Fugui saw it, his heart ached, but there was nothing he could do, it was wrong for him to go to Shitou's house as a grown man, so he had to wrong his wife.

The wind and snow were heavy, and the three of them walked forward holding hands. Xu Cao couldn't help squinting his eyes. It's really pitiful that Shitou came out to borrow food in such a heavy snow.

Shitou's house is not very far from Yang's house, just half a mile away.

Following Shitou into the house, Xu Cao saw Shitou's mother lying on the top of the kang. The whole room was so cold that the kang hadn't even been burned.Xu Cao was startled, and asked Shitou, "Shitou, why doesn't the kang burn, it's cold."

Shi Shi whispered, "Before Dad left, there wasn't much firewood left. Mother and I even picked up a lot of firewood, but we didn't expect it was still not enough."

Xu Cao hurriedly asked Fu Gui to go back and get some firewood, but there was a lot of firewood at home, all of which were trees that had been cut down on the hills.

Fu Gui went back to collect firewood in a hurry, Xu Cao looked at Shitou's mother, Shitou's mother saw Xu Cao, and smiled weakly at her, "Fugui daughter-in-law, you...why are you here?"

Xu Cao hurriedly took out the steamed stuffed bun from her bosom, "Mother Shitou, hurry up and eat something." She looked at Niang Shitou as if she was too weak.

Shitou Niang looked at the steamed stuffed bun in Xu Cao's hand, swallowed her saliva, looked at Shishi again, and said weakly, "I'm not hungry, just leave it to Shito to eat."

Xu Cao ignored her, and stuffed a bun into her hand, "Ms. Shitou, eat it quickly. If you don't eat it, Shitou will go out to call a doctor for you later. In such a cold day, how can you bear it?" No? And the stone has been eaten by me."

Only then did Shitou Niang take the steamed stuffed bun, gobbled it up and ate it, eating three in one go before recovering.Seeing the remaining three, she was not willing to eat, and was going to leave it to Shi Shi to eat.

Soon Fugui came over with two bundles of firewood, and was busy heating up the kang. Xu Cao helped cook brown rice porridge again. After Shitou Niang drank a bowl of brown rice porridge, the color on her face looked better.Xu Cao knew that Shitou's mother was hungry, and it was not a serious illness, so she told Shitou to take good care of her mother, don't worry about the firewood, if there is no firewood, they will just send it.

Shi Shi quickly agreed, and Xu Cao followed Fugui back.

Fugui just left the door, and Xiao An went to look for Shen Shi over there. Xiao An took a look at Shen Shi, her face was a little ugly, she sighed, and said angrily: "Second sister-in-law, I really feel ashamed. How could mother be like this?" They are all from the same village, if they don't give Shitou food, their children and mother may starve to death, but mother is still like this, she really feels ashamed.

Shen Shi also sighed.

The two were bored, Chen Ru walked in, sat down next to Xiao An, and said to Shen: "Second cousin, thanks to the eldest cousin just now, hey, aunt is a bit stingy, but today's She really did something wrong. In fact, my aunt told me just now that either she didn't want to borrow it, or she was upset because my aunt yelled at her, and that's why she said ugly things. "

Shen groaned, not cold or hot.After the cold scene, Chen Ru was a little embarrassed, and sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to say.The whole house was silent.

(End of this chapter)