Chapter 1919
"But why am I the one who has to bear her anger and temper?" Jiang Ning asked Jiang's father in confusion: "Is it because I have it easy?"
"Because I'm weak, because I'm small, and because I'm the easiest to bully, do I have to endure all her anger, all her dissatisfaction, all her beatings and scoldings?"
Jiang Ning asked Jiang's father sincerely: "Is it that when she hits my left cheek, I extend my right cheek to her so that she can hit me, so that she feels comfortable and has vented enough, that it is easy?"
"There are so many people in this world who have a hard time. Should I always give them a slap on the face?"
"I understand your difficulties, but who will understand me?"
Jiang Ning's voice was carried to Jiang's father's ears by the summer night breeze: "I really understand you. From childhood to adulthood, I have never caused trouble for you. Whether it is bullying or scolding by others, I almost never look for your support and never complain to you, because it will only bring more scolding from you. You only ask me to be better and better. I have already made myself obedient to the dust, how can I be good?"
"You didn't raise me. You didn't spend even a little bit of effort on me. I was in the village for five years of elementary school and it was my grandfather who took care of me. I only spent two cents a day for three years of junior high school. Not to mention my grandfather's salary as a forest ranger, even the money my grandfather and I earned from picking up scraps was enough to support me, right? All the clothes I wore since I was a child were old clothes that my cousin didn't want anymore. The only new clothes I had were bought by my aunt. How could I make it difficult for her and for you to vent your anger on me all the time?"
"I know that high school tuition costs a lot of money. I've already said that I earn my own money to go to school. I don't want your money. If this doesn't work, then calculate the money you've spent on me since I was a child. Give me some time and I'll pay you back, okay?"
"If ten months of pregnancy and two months of breastfeeding can have a price, please give me a price and I will return everything to you, okay? It doesn't mean I have to cut off my flesh and blood piece by piece like Nezha did to repay his father and his bones to repay his mother. Do you think I need to cut off my flesh and blood piece by piece and return it to you?"
Jiang Ning's heart-wrenching words caused Jiang's father to fall into a long silence.
He didn't know what went wrong. From what he had seen since he was a child, all families were like this, and he had never treated Jiang Ning badly.
Is he wrong?
He supported his parents, raised his children, loved his wife, and worked hard without resting for a single day.
Is it the wife's fault? Is it true that a wife shouldn’t hit her children? But isn't that how they all grew up? In rural areas, which child doesn’t grow up being beaten by his parents? Not to mention beating, even kneeling as punishment was a common occurrence.
Is it the daughter's fault? But just as the daughter said, she has been well-behaved and sensible since she was young, and she listens to her parents and elders. When her two sons were naughty, she never caused trouble for their parents and was friendly to her two brothers.
So what went wrong?
Dad Jiang couldn't understand.
He knew that Jiang Ma shouldn't hit her child, but this didn't seem like a big deal.
In his eyes, it is natural for his wife to educate their children.
Jiang Ning did not go home at night, but she was not in a hurry. After Jiang's mother fell asleep, she quietly slipped back to the yard.
Father Jiang left the door open for her. She went in, got a flashlight, took a bamboo basket, and went to the ditch in the field to fish for lobsters.
While fishing for lobsters, she saw many loaches and eels floating on the soil in the fields. She suddenly remembered that many children here would come out at night with their fathers' mining lamps to catch loaches and eels using rows of sewing needles embedded in discarded toothbrushes.
A toothbrush inlaid with densely packed sewing needles is tied to a thin bamboo pole. It is used to cut the loaches and eels that have floated to the surface and are lying motionless in the paddy field. The loaches and eels will be nailed to the densely packed toothbrush needles as soon as the brush is used. No matter how they twist, they cannot escape.
They don't even have to go into the water. They just have to stand on the edge of the field, shine the miner's lamp on the loaches and eels and poke them. In one night, they can catch two or three kilograms of loaches and eels.
Loach is a good thing for nourishing the body and is known as the "ginseng in water".
Without hesitation, she carried half a bamboo basket of crayfish home, took a candle, an old toothbrush, a pack of sewing needles, and pliers. After cutting the bristles on the toothbrush, she used the pliers to pick up the sewing needles, burned them red over the candle one by one, and embedded them on the toothbrush head. Then she found a thin bamboo pole to tie it to, and tied a dense-toothed bamboo basket around her waist. She fished for lobsters while catching loaches and eels.
By around ten o'clock in the evening, we had caught half a basket of loaches, estimated to be more than three pounds, and half a frame of lobsters.
She didn't go home either, but took the half box of lobsters she had caught and carried it up the mountain.
The mountain roads are very scary at night. What’s scary is not only the wolves you might encounter, but also the graves on both sides of the road.
Jiang Ning recalled that she walked to and from school alone at night every day in junior high school. In order to take a shortcut, she needed to walk along a flat mountain path. There were many cemeteries beside the mountain path. At that time, she had many terrible illusions about these graves in her mind. Every time she passed by, she would look straight ahead, lower her head, and silently chant "Amitabha" in her heart to resist the fear.
In the silent night, this mountain road seems particularly long.
Jiang Ning is not not afraid. She is not afraid of ghosts, she is afraid of wolves.
After finally arriving safely at the mountainside ranger's cabin, Jiang Ning knocked on the door, and Grandpa Jiang woke up suddenly: "Who is it?"
"Grandpa, it's me!"
Grandpa Jiang thought he had heard wrongly and asked again, "Who is it?"
"Grandpa, it's me, Ningning. I have no place to live, so I came to your place!"
The light cord of the hut was tied to the head of Grandpa Jiang's bed. He stretched out his hand and pulled the light, and it came on. He quickly got up and came to open the door. Seeing that she was carrying a large frame and a bamboo basket in her hands, he hurried to take it, and said in an angry and anxious tone: "Why did you come to the mountain so late? How can you be so brave? What if you encounter a wolf?"
The wolves in the mountains would go to the village to steal chickens and pigs at night. Grandpa Jiang was frightened to death when he thought that his granddaughter might encounter a pack of wolves coming down the mountain.
Jiang Ning also understood Grandpa Jiang's concerns and said with a smile, "I have nowhere to go, so I can only come to see Grandpa."
This sentence made Grandpa Jiang's eyes red. "Next time, come earlier, and don't run up the mountain alone after dark."
"Yeah." Jiang Ning nodded obediently.
"Have you eaten?" Grandpa Jiang asked as he searched the bamboo cabinet for leftovers to make fried rice for Jiang Ning.
"Yes, I cooked dinner. Can I not eat?"
None of them mentioned Jiang's father and mother.
Grandpa Jiang fetched some water for Jiang Ning to wash up.
Jiang Ning grew up here with her grandfather when she was a child. She ran all over the mountains and was familiar with every place in the mountains. She also had clothes here, so she took a toothbrush to brush her teeth and simply washed herself.
Grandpa Jiang put two long benches together, lit two plates of mosquito coils on both sides, and planned to sleep on the long benches at night.
The forest ranger’s bed is only 1.2 meters wide, which is very small. When she was a child, she could sleep with Grandpa Jiang, but now that she has grown up, she can no longer sleep on it.
Jiang Ning looked sad and said, "Grandpa, you go to sleep on the bed. I'm small, so sleeping on the bench is just right for me."
Grandpa Jiang just pushed her: "It's already midnight, go to bed quickly."
Jiang Ning started to argue with Grandpa Jiang. She sat on the bamboo chair and refused to go to sleep. Finally, Grandpa Jiang had no choice but to go to bed himself, but turned the fan towards Jiang Ning. Jiang Ning did not refuse and lay down on the narrow long bench to sleep.
This time, she, like Jiang's father, experienced the pain of being carried away by mosquitoes in the mountains.
Even though I covered my face with a straw hat, when I woke up in the morning, I still had thirteen mosquito bites on my face and both of my eyelids were swollen.
At daybreak, Jiang's father rushed to the mountain. Only after seeing Jiang Ning in the small house did he feel relieved to go down the mountain.
Grandpa Jiang cooked breakfast, which consisted of sweet potato porridge, boiled eggs, and a bowl of stinky, fragrant, and bitter rotten radishes.
If there was no Jiang Ning, Grandpa Jiang's breakfast would be simpler. He would just make a bowl of homemade sesame paste or fried rice with water, or make an egg drop with boiling water.
Seeing the rotten radish in the small porcelain bowl, Jiang Ning suddenly understood why Grandpa Jiang’s health was so poor. Grandpa Jiang lived alone and was too lazy to cook. He ate rotten radishes for three meals a day. It was impossible for him to be in good health!
Jiang Ning couldn't sit still any longer. She peeled the egg and forced Grandpa Jiang to eat it. She went down the mountain to buy two pieces of tofu from the tofu seller, went back to Jiang's house to get the stationery and pen she had bought before, and then went back up the mountain.
At noon she cooked loach and stewed tofu for her grandfather.
Grandpa Jiang was very happy that his granddaughter could come to the mountain to accompany him. He woke up early in the morning with a smile on his face, took his old hunting rifle and went to patrol the forest, and by the way, he looked for pheasants, rabbits, rat snakes and the like. If not, he would go to the mountain stream to catch some crabs and fry them for his granddaughter.
Grandpa Jiang lived up to his nickname of 'Old Caterpillar', walking slowly with his hands behind his back and hunched back.
Jiang Ning officially started writing his novel today, after finishing the outline and character settings yesterday. The title is very simple - "The Years I Solved Cases in the Song Dynasty".
The story begins by mentioning the heroine's identity as a forensic doctor. Later, she accidentally travels to the Song Dynasty and becomes the youngest daughter of a constable in the Kaifeng Prefecture. The youngest daughter is twelve years old and has learned some boxing from her father. Because of the recent sensation of a headless corpse case in Kaifeng Prefecture, she follows her father to investigate the case. She accidentally falls on her head and wakes up as the heroine. Her father is also very worried because he has not been able to find the murderer in the recent headless corpse case. Afterwards, the heroine follows her father and uses some commonly used modern crime-solving methods to find clues for her father, reminds and guides her father, and successfully solves this headless case.
Because of the talent the heroine showed in the first case, her father, the head constable, paid more attention to her. Whenever there was a case, he would take his daughter with him if she wanted to.
Because he already had a draft in his mind, Jiang Ning started writing smoothly and finished 6,000 words in one morning.
She was anxious to make money, so she had a strong desire to write. At noon, she cooked stir-fried lentils and loach stewed with tofu. She saw that the two acres of land reclaimed by Grandpa Jiang in front of the house was full of long beans. After dinner, Jiang Ning took a bamboo basket to pick long beans and asked Grandpa Jiang to take them to the mountain stream to wash them. Then she continued to write her novel.
After Grandpa Jiang washed all the long beans and brought them back to dry, Jiang Ning started to pickle the beans. Grandpa Jiang wanted to come over to help, but was firmly stopped by Jiang Ning.
Grandpa Jiang was very sad that he couldn't help: "You go do your homework, I'll pickle the beans."
Thinking about how no matter what Grandpa Jiang pickled, it would always taste soft and mushy, Jiang Ning sternly rejected him: "No! You can't!"
After finishing all this, Jiang Ning wrote another 6,000 words in the afternoon.
Two days later, Jiang Ning re-copied the first 40,000 words that he had accumulated over the past few days, along with the crayfish that he had saved over the past few days. He rode his bike to the city and mailed all the manuscripts he had written over the past few days.
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