Chapter 5: Eat Chicken, Mother and Daughter Eat Chicken
There was no tool to tell time at home, but her house was halfway up the mountain. When she saw people working in the fields, she knew it was still early for them to get off work.
Bai Jing boiled water to remove the feathers from the chicken, and then stewed it. Then she went to the cellar, which was in the corner of the kitchen. There was a wooden ladder that could be used to go down from the ground.
The cellar was very large, at least a dozen square meters, but it was empty. Apart from half a basket of sweet potatoes, there was nothing inside.
This shows how poor this family is.
In order to match the meat, Bai Jing planned to use five sweet potatoes as the main food and make a pot of harder sweet potato porridge with wild vegetables.
The autumn harvest is coming soon. If her mother doesn't eat some fruits, she might be half dead by the end of the harvest.
It was because her house was halfway up the mountain, otherwise the aroma of the stewed chicken would have attracted the neighbors on both sides.
Bai Jing had been busy all the time. When she heard the horn, she realized that it was time to get off work at noon.
My brother and sister-in-law never come back at noon. The school is quite far from home, and there is not enough time for them to go back and forth at noon.
Memories churned in the depths of her mind, and Bai Jing recalled what her younger brother and sister-in-law had brought back after leaving for school: wild vegetable dumplings, which were made by kneading cooked wild vegetables into vegetable dumplings. Apart from the salty taste, only the bitterness of the wild vegetables remained.
Apart from being able to prevent people from starving to death, this thing has no nutritional value at all. She was impulsive today and shouldn't have stewed both chickens. She should have waited until her brother and sister-in-law came back to eat them.
It's already stewed, it's too late to regret now.
Bai Jing planned to go to school to bring chicken to her younger brother and sister-in-law after her mother had lunch.
Luo Chunhua walked home exhausted and hungry.
The closer she got to home, the more she was tempted by the aroma of meat.
She looked up at the hills on both sides, sniffed, and found that the smell came from the mountain on her side. She was puzzled because her family did not have the conditions to eat meat. It was very good to be able to taste meat once every two or three years.
But it’s not a festival now, so why is there the smell of meat coming from her house?
So she quickened her pace to go home.
It was not until she reached her own yard that she dared to believe that the aroma of meat really came from her own home.
"Jing'er, Jing'er." Not knowing what she was thinking of, she shouted loudly.
Bai Jing had just served the sweet potato porridge when she heard her mother calling her from outside, "Mom, I'm at home, what's wrong?" Putting down the rice bowl, she quickly walked out of the kitchen.
She happened to meet her mother who was walking hurriedly towards the kitchen. "Mom, what are you doing? Who is chasing you?" She looked behind her mother and didn't see anyone following her.
"What are you doing at home? Why does it smell like meat?" She was very puzzled, and when she came to her daughter, she was even more certain that the smell of meat came from her own home.
Hearing her mother talking about this, Bai Jing's sallow face lit up with a spring smile. "Mom, I'm lucky today. I ran into two injured pheasants in the back mountain. I was planning to go pick up some firewood, but I didn't expect to have such good luck. Mom, come in quickly, I've prepared everything."
After saying that, she pulled her mother into the kitchen and said, "Mom, look, this is the chicken soup I made. Isn't it delicious?" She had already put the chicken soup in a bowl and let it cool, thinking that she could eat it when her mother came back.
She brought a bowl of chicken soup to her mother and blew on it twice. "Mom, it's not hot anymore. Try it. I put some wild onions in it. It's so fragrant. I was craving it when it was stewed."
Before Luo Chunhua could even open her mouth, her eldest daughter pushed a bowl of chicken soup to her mouth.
The fragrance was so tempting that she couldn't resist and took a sip.
This is terrible, I can't stop at all.
After all, Luo Chunhua hadn't eaten meat for a long time, so she was naturally hungry. People can no longer resist anything when they lack people.
So she took the bowl and went to the small table in the kitchen and sat down.
Seeing that her mother was eating with such relish, Bai Jing didn't hesitate any longer and started eating right away.
Although it is a pheasant, it is cunning and runs all over the mountains. Now it is the autumn harvest season, so the meat on its body is naturally firm and fat.
Both chickens took up half a pot of stew, and it was a big iron pot.
Our family is poor and we only have one pot.
It is used for cooking and boiling water at home, and it is used to feed us.
After eating a bowl of meat, Luo Chunhua finally slowed down her eating.
"Have you gone into the mountains?" She held the bowl in one hand and the chopsticks in the other, her eyes fixed on her eldest daughter who was sitting next to her.
Bai Jing naturally knew what her mother was worried about. "No, I didn't even leave the mountain behind our house." She didn't dare to go into the deep mountains.
"How can we have this kind of thing in our back mountain?" Luo Chunhua said with disbelief, "Don't lie to me, I know better than you what's in the back mountain." Afraid that her daughter would not admit it, she added another sentence.
Bai Jing looked helpless, "Mom, I really didn't lie to you. I'll take you to see the place where I picked up the pheasant later, okay?" She knew her mother was worried about her.
She remembered that incident, and she dared not forget it even after she was reborn.
There was a family in the village. Because they had no food during a disaster year and the surrounding forests had been eaten up, they had no choice but to take their son into the deep mountains behind.
Once in, he never came out.
When the village chief took people to look for it, they only found a head and some bones, and the rest had been eaten by wild beasts.
His son was nowhere to be found.
Why did she remember? Because she saw the head that had been bitten beyond recognition.
She was so scared that she lost her soul. Her mother said that it took a month to call her soul back, otherwise she would have become a fool.
She knew even more clearly what her mother was worried about, that she would end up in the belly of a beast for a bite of food.
Seeing how confident she was in what she said, Luo Chunhua withdrew her gaze and said, "Although I have three daughters, they are all my flesh and blood. I don't want anything to happen to any of you." After saying that, she started eating again.
Bai Jing was very attentive and could hear the sob and fear in her mother's voice.
"Mom, I promise you that I will never go into the mountains. I haven't done my best to be filial to you yet, so how could I possibly go there to seek death?" Bai Jing put a piece of meat from the bowl into her mother's bowl and said with a smile.
Luo Chunhua gave her a glare and said, "Eat it yourself, there's some in my bowl."
After the mother and daughter finished a bowl of meat, Bai Jing served her mother a bowl of sweet potato porridge, "Mom, eat something hard, otherwise you won't be able to bear it."
Seeing the sweet potato porridge in the bowl, Luo Chunhua immediately jumped up in anger, "You damn girl, how much did you cook? The food in the cellar is enough for our family to eat until the end of the month. It's only the beginning of the month. You are so busy. How are we going to live in the future?"
Seeing the full bowl of sweet potatoes, Luo Chunhua felt very distressed. If she added some more water, this bowl would be enough for the whole family to have a meal.
Seeing her mother so worried about this little bit of food, Bai Jing couldn't help but feel her eyes moist. "Don't worry, mother. I'll go to the back mountain this afternoon. The wild taro is ripe now, so I'll go dig some up."
Although wild taro can fill your stomach, it is really difficult to dig. People with better-off families don't look down on it.
Not only is it small, but it's also very spicy. If you touch it too many times, your hands will be burned by the spiciness.
But for those who have no food at home, it is a life-saving thing, so being cruel is nothing.
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