Chapter 21 Letter from Wei Dai
This is definitely not a trap.
Wen Jiajia quickly calmed down and guessed that no one would put bricks in a trap.
It looked like something was being built here. Could it be a military base? Wen Jiajia was terrified by her own guess.
But after coming to my senses, it would be more reasonable to guess that this is a fortress left over from the war period.
"It hurts so much, why is there a hole!" Fang Mingyan twisted her foot after falling down, and she leaned against the mouth of the pit and screamed in pain.
She felt angry: "Who set this trap? Why set it here?" She was so stupid. This place was close to the village, what kind of wild animals could there be?
No cards inserted yet!
Now individual hunting and digging into the corners of socialism must be done collectively.
Even if you are lucky and a wild boar dies in front of you, you still have to hand it over to the village, and the village will distribute it to the villagers. At most, you can get a larger share for yourself, but it is impossible to monopolize it.
When hunting in a group, signs are placed on the hunting pits to prevent villagers entering the mountains from falling into them.
Wen Jiajia was speechless. "It was probably laid by someone a hundred or a thousand years ago."
She had just guessed that it might be a trench, but when she saw the stone statue buried in the soil with only half of its body exposed, she overturned her guess.
That's not a trench. It's a tomb or a thief's hole.
This is a layer of paper. Once it is pierced through, all the confusions in the past few days are now clear.
He is not a robber, nor a thief, nor a spy or a dealer, but a grave robber.
The police and the commune might have known about it, so they sent people to search the mountain, but they did not make the inside story public.
On the one hand, they were afraid that grave robbers who had fled to the mountains would destroy the tomb. On the other hand, they were also afraid that some villagers would learn of the tomb and start digging as well.
Wen Jiajia thought confidently: It must be a big tomb.
Otherwise, they would rather give up the autumn harvest and arrange people to search the mountains.
Fang Mingyan was so scared that she couldn't wait to pull Wen Jiajia and said, "What?! Whose grave is this? Let's go, let's go!"
“…”
It’s not wrong to say tomb.
Wen Jiajia didn't stay long. She had read too many tomb-robbing novels and was afraid that a dumpling would jump out of the tomb.
She first lifted up Fang Mingyan, who had sprained her leg, and then Fang Mingyan lay at the entrance of the cave and pulled her up.
Fang Mingyan couldn't get down the mountain quickly in this condition. Wen Jiajia prepared to take her to the roadside and wait for someone from the village to pass by and help her down the mountain.
This hillside is covered with weeds and trees, and people walking along the mountain road outside cannot see clearly inside.
The birds are chirping in the forest, but for some reason it feels so quiet.
It came again, that familiar sixth sense came back. Damn it, Wen Jiajia's hair stood up.
If it weren't for the clear blue sky and the faint red color spreading over the distant East Mountain, indicating that it was a good weather, she would be afraid that she would be struck to death in the jungle in the next second.
"Hey, that person..."
"What? You still want to say something to me. How come you don't have any strength at all? I just lifted you up easily, and you pulled me and almost made me fall."
"What..."
"Don't try to be so cunning. Let's go. There must be a lot of people coming down the mountain right now. I can't support you by myself."
Fang Mingyan was not very smart, but she was definitely not stupid. Although she didn't know what Wen Jiajia meant, she would not refute her at this time.
Wen Jiajia looked normal until she walked out of the jungle and came to the slope where she had picked wood ears a few days ago. Only then did a hint of relief at escaping death show on her face.
Fang Mingyan's legs were almost weak, but she still held herself up tightly and did not fall down.
The two did not stop and went straight to the roadside.
There were indeed a lot of people coming to the mountains to pick mushrooms. After waiting on the roadside for five or six minutes, the two of them saw some people.
Only at this point did Wen Jiajia breathe a sigh of relief.
She asked, "Auntie, Yanyan sprained her ankle. Can you take us down the mountain?"
"Okay! You hold one side and I'll hold the other side."
Half an hour later, the group finally descended the mountain.
After the ladies left, Fang Mingyan sat down on the ground with her legs limp and grabbed Wen Jiajia: "What happened to you just now? Did you collapse someone's grave and get possessed?"
Wen Jiajia glared: "What nonsense are you talking about!"
She rubbed her arms quickly. After traveling through time, she was no longer the person who watched three horror movies in one night and slept with the curtains open without being scared. Fang Mingyan's words scared her so much that she got goosebumps.
"Okay, let me take you back first." Wen Jiajia said hurriedly, and then she had to go find Captain Fang.
Seeing that she didn't look well, Fang Mingyan didn't say much. She also wanted to tell her father about stepping on the grave, so that he could burn some incense and give some money to the other person.
After Wen Jiajia sent the people home, she ran to Fang Baoguo's house, but did not see Fang Baoguo. After seeing Lin Ying, she learned that Captain Fang was at the brigade headquarters at the moment.
"It seems that they are in a meeting." Lin Ying said.
So Wen Jiajia ran to the brigade headquarters again.
She came at the right time, as Fang Baoguo had just finished a meeting. When he saw Jia Jia running in as if someone was being chased by a dog, he was stunned.
"Ahem, what's wrong with you?" He was choked and put down the cup of water and asked.
Wen Jiajia's eyes were wide open, and it was hard to tell whether they contained worry or excitement.
She said, "Captain, take your men to search the rocky mountain, especially the hillside on the left at the third fork after going up the mountain. There is a forest further in..."
"Leopard Head Ridge?"
"Oh, I don't know what kind of mountain or forest it is. You can find out if you search for it."
Fang Baoguo glanced at her helplessly: "You didn't even tell me the reason, what am I searching for?"
Wen Jiajia suppressed her excitement and said, "I found a tomb there. It's definitely not someone's grave, but a tomb."
Fang Baoguo stood up suddenly, surprised: "How do you know it's not a grave?"
Wen Jiajia: "Yan Yan and I fell down when we were digging yam. I saw a stone sculpture inside. The kind that carved a person. I also saw a lot of bricks, green bricks."
Therefore, it cannot be the grave of ordinary people.
Wen Jiajia hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice and whispered, "Captain, could the man you've been looking for these days be a grave robber? If he is a grave robber, would he want to rob this grave?"
So, hurry up and go now, you might catch someone there.
When Fang Baoguo thought of this, he ran to call for help.
"You go back first and don't tell this to anyone else." Baoguo instructed Wen Jiajia before leaving.
Wen Jiajia nodded. How could she tell anyone if she was so afraid of death?
What happened afterwards has nothing to do with Wen Jiajia.
The farm work in the village came to an end, and all the grain was distributed. The grain that the Wen family received was enough to fill half of the granary.
There were eight bags of rice, one bag of soybeans, one bag of mung beans and red beans together, and one bag of glutinous rice.
In fact, there were still sweet potatoes drying in the room of the original owner's parents downstairs. Because sweet potatoes don't last long, she sent half of them to the brigade's flour mill. There was an aunt "paid" to help process them, and she would harvest 50 kilograms of sweet potato flour the day after tomorrow.
Don't think that 50 kilograms is not a lot. 50 kilograms of sweet potato flour can fill 5 large bags, which is enough for her to fry, boil, cut into small pieces and make dumplings. She can eat it in various ways once a week, and it will last for a year.
There was also a small bag of taro, which looked to be only about 20 pounds. Wen Jiajia put it in the kitchen and could finish it in less than a month.
There are also hundreds of pounds of corn, which are now drying in the yard. After drying, they can be ground into corn flour and stored for later consumption.
Two bags of peanuts were sent to the oil press to be pressed for oil.
Finally, there are potatoes.
The village planted two crops of potatoes. The first crop had already been sold. The second crop was not yet ripe and would not be harvested until December.
Storing food into the warehouse is indeed the happiest thing.
Hey! If you have food in your hands, you won't be worried.
There was a commotion in the village, and Wen Jiajia only then realized that the man had been caught.
It was ten o'clock in the morning. The sun had risen completely, and the front and back yards were filled with sunshine. The dew was evaporated by the sun. Many villagers who were working went home and took out the clothes they had accumulated for two days to dry them at home.
It rained two days ago and my clothes are damp. I need to expose them to the sun again to remove the moisture and the odor produced after drying in the shade.
Wen Jiajia did not go to work today.
She asked for leave because she was really scared. Although she was very excited when she went to find Fang Baoguo, she felt weak all over after the reaction, and then she felt the pain in her arm.
What happened? I fell into the hole.
The area between the elbow and the shoulder was red and swollen, and there was even blood. Wen Jiajia was afraid that there was some bacteria or virus, so she went to the commune to ask Fang Lan to help clean it. She endured the pain and disinfected it with alcohol before she felt relieved.
Hearing the noise, Wen Jiajia put down the dried Quercus japonica cake in her hand, stood up and hurried out.
Many people in the village gathered at the entrance. Wen Jiajia ran over, looked around, came to Chen Qianyue's side, and asked her: "What's wrong?"
Chen Qianyue had just started working in the fields near the entrance to the village. Her location happened to be at the foot of the rocky mountain, facing the path up the mountain. She was one of the first to eat the melon.
"You may not know, but the man who escaped from the mountain was caught. They said he was caught in a tomb. My God, there is a tomb here." Chen Qianyue's face was full of disbelief. "How big is the tomb? Will anyone come to dig it up?"
Wen Jiajia stared, she really guessed it right.
"Where were you arrested?" Wen Jiajia asked.
Chen Qianyue: "They said he was in Yanshan. Oh my god, he was so close to us. I even heard that he had a gun in his hand. When he was captured, our captain was holding a pottery figurine in his hand, and his face was pale."
Wen Jiajia's face was equally pale.
Really...she almost died again.
The villagers' enthusiasm for discussing the grave robbers has now subsided, and all their attention is focused on the grave.
"It's definitely a big tomb," Fang Duocai said confidently, "I went to take a look secretly, and there were stone statues and even stone horses."
"Hey, how much do you think the thing the captain is holding is worth? The captain fell down when he was coming down the mountain, and he was still holding that thing high up."
"It should be at least five, six, seven or eight dollars, right? You say..."
What is he saying? Everyone present knew what he meant next. He just wanted to take advantage of the situation.
After all, something a grave robber would risk his life to take must be very valuable.
But before the villagers could make a decision, the mountain was closed.
When an archaeological team came to the city, all of them had to live in the commune, and there were militia guarding them.
Want to get a bargain? No way.
Wen Jiajia couldn't help but sigh. She was an ordinary person, so how could she not be moved?
Antiques will become more and more valuable in the future. The pottery figurine in the captain's hand alone is worth more than a million.
Because of this, Wen Jiajia was sad for a while until Wei Dai's letter arrived.
——
There is no murderous atmosphere in the south at the end of October.
The mountains are still green, as green as ink.
The water is not frozen yet. It is said that ducks know when the river water is warm in spring, but they also know when the river water is cold in autumn. The ducks have been quite active recently, which shows that the weather is not cold yet.
Wen Jiajia even caught a wild duck while chasing ducks.
Oh my god, it was a national second-class protected fish. She caught it herself, which made Wen Jiajia feel nervous when she ate it. She even took a special look and found that it was not a Chinese Merganser, so she was slightly relieved.
It’s true, wild duck is really delicious.
Anyway, it tastes better than pheasant, especially when stewed with dried castor oil cake. The meat is stewed to a savory texture and a layer of oil is stewed out. The soup is thick and delicious, so fragrant that you want to swallow your tongue into your stomach.
The persimmons in the yard in front of the door are finally ripe. Wen Jiajia has counted them again and again during this period of time. She knows exactly how many persimmons are on the tree.
"Aunt, can I eat today?" she asked for the 31st time.
Wen Xuan drooled as she looked at the persimmon tree. Every day she would move a small stool and sit at the door to watch, fearing that a bird or a naughty boy would come and snatch her persimmons.
Wen Jiajia patted her head and said, "Okay, go get the pole, and ask my sister to get a bamboo basket."
The persimmon trees are tall, and you need a special pole to pick them.
"good!"
Wen Xuan jumped up excitedly and rushed into the house impatiently. She could finally eat the red persimmons.
Just at this moment, a bicycle came towards the Wen family.
"Is Wen Jia at home?"
Wen Jiajia was stunned for a moment, then went to the door and asked, "Here, what's the matter?" She recognized him from his clothes; he was the postman.
Xiao Tang smiled and said, "Are you Wen Jia?"
Wen Jiajia nodded.
"Here's a letter for you, please sign your name." Xiao Tang took the letter out of his pocket. It was for military use, and he delivered it personally.
Wen Jiajia had some guesses in her mind, so she hurriedly took it, signed her name, and then opened it impatiently, forgetting about hitting the persimmon.
The letter came from Wei Dai.
[Jia Jia, I am glad to receive your letter. Please forgive me for sending this letter to you only now. It must be November now. Are the oranges at home ripe? When I was a child, I once stole oranges from your village. The sweetest one was the one near the big rock on the west mountain.
How was your life during this period? If you like to eat rice noodles, you can go to the county town to find Lao Bai. He is very good at making rice noodles. They are smooth, soft and not easy to break. I once ate the beef bone rice noodles he made, and the taste made me unforgettable for a long time.
...I have good news. The army has finally started to build a family compound. I was promoted to company commander this week and will have the opportunity to be allocated a house. I don't know if you like a building or a bungalow. If it's a building, it doesn't matter. My leader is a good person, I will go and persuade him.
Jiajia, you don't know that I miss you all the time. I regret not taking a photo with you before leaving home, so when I miss you, I can only picture your figure in my mind.
…The sycamore trees here are now only branches left. On your birthday, perhaps the first snow will fall. I think it will still be warm as spring at home. But don’t be careless. If you need charcoal, you can go to the commune winery to find Feng An, he is my friend…
Jiajia, if possible, I would like to hear from you. ]
Wen Jiajia felt sad. She flipped through the paper and saw that he had written five pages.
She was in a bit of a dilemma, she couldn't write five pages...
She hasn't written so many words in many years.
But her mind was soon drawn to the issue of room allocation, and Wen Jiajia hurried to the room to get paper and pen.
"Aunt, aunt! Hit the persimmons!"
Wen Xuan urged anxiously.
Wen Jiajia entered the room and said, "Go and guard the persimmons. Auntie will come to beat you later."
After saying this, he bit the tip of the pen and organized his words to write his reply.
The first thing is that you need a bungalow.
The buildings of this era are really not good enough. The original owner grew up in a family compound. She was okay with her foster parents, but other families with many children had nowhere to go.
There are countless families with more than ten people from three generations living in a room of 40 to 50 square meters, and having a room of 40 to 50 square meters is already very good.
Wen Jiajia counted with her hands.
For someone of Wei Dai's rank, 50 square meters is the most he can get. But he has three people on his side, and Wen Chun and Wen Xuan will grow up slowly.
If I really marry him, I will definitely have a child if nothing unexpected happens.
In this way, a family of five or six living in a 50-square-meter house would still be too small even if there was no public stall.
Besides, the current building has many households on one floor. Maybe there is a public toilet, and in the future, you will have to share the toilet with others. Wen Jiajia cannot accept it and would rather have a bungalow.
Wen Jiajia wrote quickly, repeating the three words "want a bungalow" three times.
What else can I write next?
Wen Jiajia thought about it again, and told him about the discovery of the ancient tomb by the Fuyang Brigade. She proudly said that she was the one who collapsed the ancient tomb and how she caught a tomb robber who tried to steal the ancient artifacts.
She also said that she lost her job as a colleague with Daqiang because of this damn tomb robber, but as luck would have it, she was assigned to herd ducks again. After the autumn harvest, her daily job was to herd ducks, and she could occasionally pick up a few duck eggs to eat.
At this point, she seemed to have opened a huge gate. Her thoughts flooded into her mind and she wrote without stopping, finishing three pages in one breath.
But after writing three pages, she could hold it in no longer. Wen Jiajia hesitated for a moment, folded the letter, put it in the drawer, and decided to go to the county town to mail it when she had time.
"Aunt, come and pick the persimmons!"
Wen Xuan, the greedy guy, is urging me again.
"Oh, here it comes." Wen Jiajia hurried out and swallowed her saliva. She also wanted to eat persimmons.
The persimmons were an old variety, each one was as big as a fist, or even bigger than her fist.
Not all of them are ripe, some are still orange. But it doesn't matter, persimmons will ripen if you cover them tightly.
If I keep it on the tree, the birds will eat it sooner or later. The birds are very greedy and never finish what they start. They only take a few bites of a persimmon, which is a huge waste.
Wen Jiajia looked up, aimed the pole with a net bag at the persimmons and gently turned it, and the persimmons fell into the net bag.
Wen Chun and Wen Xuan clapped their hands with joy. They carefully took the persimmons out of the net bag and put them on the table.
Wen Jiajia didn't stop and continued to hit persimmons.
The children playing outside saw the persimmon tree in the Wen family's yard swaying and immediately ran towards the Wen family.
They knew that the Wen family was going to pick persimmons.
"Don't eat it, this is mine!"
Wen Xuan looked at the person at the door and was very angry. She rushed out like a guard dog and bared her teeth at the person.
Her eyes bulged with tears and she was about to cry.
One, two, three, four, five…
There were so many children at the door that she couldn't even count them with her fingers. Wen Xuan became furious instantly. If the persimmons were divided, she, her sister, and her aunt would not be able to eat them.
"Xuanxuan, come in quickly." Wen Jiajia called her, "Come in, everyone."
Apart from anything else, the villagers have really taken good care of the three orphan girls of the Wen family during this period. It is not reasonable for Wen Jiajia to let these children go home biting their fingers.
She picked most of the persimmons from the tree and filled the wooden table in the yard with them.
Wen Jiajia pinched it and looked at it again.
Put the half-cooked ones in a bamboo basket and let them soak for a few days before eating them.
In fact, this kind of firm persimmon is more durable than the new varieties of persimmons that will appear decades later, and can be stored for four or five days without any problem.
Wen Jiajia distributed the remaining ripe persimmons on the table to the children who were watching.
"Half per person, no more." Wen Jiajia said, "Line up and I'll give it to everyone."
There is food and the naughty kids are all very well behaved.
There were no snacks these days, and wild fruits from the mountains were the snacks for rural children.
But most of the fruits are sour, and even the sweet ones are very small. Snacks like Wen's persimmons are already considered top-notch snacks.
"Thank you, Sister Jiajia!"
"Thank you, auntie."
"Thank you, Auntie..."
It must be said that it is better to put these children in a nursery, at least they know how to say thank you.
Even if each person only had half a persimmon, he still got 6 big red tomatoes from the Wen family.
Wen Xuan watched eagerly from the side, and only felt relieved when she saw that there were still a lot of them on the table.
Finally, Wen Jiajia gave half to Wen Chun and Wen Xuan respectively: "Our persimmons are big. If you eat one, you will have diarrhea."
Although Wen Chun and Wen Xuan are greedy, they are not greedy. It is good enough to eat half of them.
The ripening of Wen family persimmons is a signal that many fruits in the village are ripening one after another.
After the autumn harvest, the children welcomed their harvest.
There are peaches in the mountains, oranges all over the mountains, strangely shaped peaches, and sweet wild lychees.
Wen Chun and Wen Xuan had a great time and followed a group of children to the foot of the mountain to play every day.
Perhaps it was because the wild fruits were tempting, or perhaps it was because the brain capacity of three-year-olds was not that large, and they forgot Wen Jiajia's warning not to eat wild fruits.
Of course, they would not forget their aunt at home. They would not return empty-handed every day, which allowed Wen Jiajia to see a lot of wild fruits.
These mountains are truly a treasure.
Baba seeds, wild grapes, and hairy chestnuts.
Wen Jiajia received a handful of hairy chestnuts from Wen Chun and Wen Xuan that day, and she put them in the pot to cook. The taste after cooking was... glutinous and sweet, much better than all the chestnuts and hazelnuts she had eaten.
How could she teach Wen Chun and Wen Xuan a lesson?
A man who eats someone's food is grateful, and a man who receives someone's gifts is grateful.
Wen Jiajia carried a bamboo basket and a small iron shovel and went up the mountain to pick chestnuts.
Mao Lizi is in Xishan, where there is a huge orange grove.
Although I am idle as a farmer, it does not mean I have nothing to do.
Those who wanted to earn more work points went to the river dam, while others picked oranges here.
After the oranges in Xishan are harvested, some are sent to the supply and marketing cooperatives in various communes, and the rest are sent to the county seat.
Truckloads of oranges were delivered, and piles of bills were deposited into the account.
Then the most beautiful voice rang out from the radio that had not been on for thousands of years——
"The Commune Department will hold a meeting at 2 p.m."
What kind of meeting? Everyone knows it’s a money-sharing meeting.
The annual year-end dividend distribution has finally begun.
Wen Jiajia looked at the calendar and saw that today was the beginning of winter.
After the beginning of winter, all things wither and winter begins from this day.
She gathered her coat and looked up at the clear sky, but she didn't feel the breath of winter.
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