Chapter 3 3
The rice was not cooked yet, so she poured the broth into a porcelain bowl, found a brush, and went to the pond at the door to brush the crayfish.
As she was brushing, she watched as more crayfish crawled out from the cracks in the rocks by the pond. She grabbed them and washed them together with them.
While washing, I caught seven or eight more.
At this time, there are so many crayfish that you can fill a bucket with just a few of them. They are everywhere in ponds and ditches, and not many people eat them. Some naughty little boys will catch crayfish and let two crayfish fight each other for fun like fighting cocks. When they die, they are thrown into the ditch or on the roadside.
When Jiang's mother came out of the shower, Jiang Ning hadn't even finished washing the crayfish. Seeing that Jiang Ning was not at home, she started yelling again: "Where did he go? I asked you to bring a meal, but the meal is still here and he is gone!"
When he walked to the door and saw Jiang Ning brushing crayfish by the pond, he shouted, "You're not doing your job, but making this thing. Not only does it waste fuel, but it also has no meat. By the time you bring food to your dad, it'll be dark!"
Jiang Ning ignored her words. After brushing the crayfish, he went to the well to rinse the lobsters, pulled out the shrimp intestines, cut off the internal organs on the shrimp heads, and left the shrimp roe.
During the double harvest season, parents have heavy work to do and are really tired.
The food cooked by Jiang's mother and grandfather is terrible. Because they are reluctant to use oil, they mostly cook in water. In order to save trouble, her grandfather also likes to cook a hodgepodge, that is, no matter what kind of dish it is, no matter whether it is meat or vegetarian, and no matter whether it is put in first or last, it is all stewed in the same pot.
Thinking of her grandfather, she hadn't seen him for many years.
Jiang Ning moved quickly. After washing the crayfish, he picked some peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and pulled out some garlic in the yard.
Ginger is produced in abundance here. For farmers, onions, ginger, garlic, bay leaves, cinnamon and other things are the most abundant. I was originally worried that there would be no soy sauce at home, but I didn't expect that there would even be thirteen spices.
Crush the cucumber, stir-fry the eggplant, and finally add the spicy crayfish.
The aroma was so spicy that it choked people. It kept drilling into Jiang's mother's nose. Jiang's mother had just finished taking a shower and was watching TV in her room. When she smelled the aroma, she couldn't help but come to the kitchen to take a look. She said disdainfully, "You've poured out all the oil to burn this thing!"
The oil was all from rapeseed grown by the family and pressed at the grain and oil station, so there was no shortage of oil. It was just that Jiang's mother and her family had lived through difficult times and were used to saving money. Even twenty years later, Jiang's mother still didn't want to waste oil, saying it was good for health.
The aroma was so tempting that Jiang Ma softened her tone and said, "If you had cooked the food earlier, I wouldn't have said anything to you. You're like a spinning top, and you won't move unless I whip you." She added, "With so much oil, even stir-fried shoe soles will taste good."
She had already taken a shower and changed into clean clothes, so she wouldn't do anything else. She just waited until dinner was over, watched TV for a while, and then went to bed.
Jiang Ning ignored her mother's sharp tongue and poured a few cucumbers cut into strips into the cooked crayfish and mixed them for a few times. He then poured in garlic leaves and divided the crayfish into two portions and put them into a large porcelain bowl.
The cucumber is green and crisp, and the crayfish is red and tempting.
At this time, the rice in the big pot was cooked. Jiang Ning filled a ceramic bowl with rice and put it into a bamboo basket. He also filled half of the cooked broth, eggplant, cucumber, and crayfish into the basket one by one and took it to his grandfather and father who were threshing in the rice field.
Because we were afraid of weather changes, heavy rain fell before the rice had even dried, so everyone worked day and night while the weather was fine.
When Jiang Ning arrived at the rice field, Grandpa Jiang was still threshing the rice with an old cow and a stone roller.
Next to them are two families threshing rice with threshers, and another is using a tractor to roll the rice back and forth to thresh the rice. Threshers are suitable for families with many people. Jiang Song and Jiang Bai did not come back this year. As Grandpa Jiang is old, he just led the old cow and dragged the stone roller, rolling it slowly without any effort.
When Jiang Ning arrived, he shouted, "Grandpa! It's time to eat!"
Grandpa was leading the cow in a circle. When he heard the sound, he smiled at her, and the wrinkles on his face stretched out like a chrysanthemum.
Jiang Ning smiled and suddenly felt a sore nose.
"Grandpa! It's time for dinner!" Jiang Ning shouted.
Many people in the rice field turned around to look at Jiang Ning when they heard the voice. At first glance, they thought they saw a young man.
Even with the outdoor lights connected, the light was still dim in the evening.
Some people with poor eyesight even shouted to Grandpa Jiang: "Old Fa Cai, your second grandson is back!"
Grandpa Jiang was also stunned when he saw Jiang Ning's hair. He stopped the cow beside the straw pile to eat grass, walked over to look at Jiang Ning's hair, and frowned: "Did your mother beat you again?"
He was angry and distressed, his hands were shaking, "Your mother beat you and you didn't run away? You just stood there and let her beat you? Run!"
Jiang Ning was raised by Grandpa Jiang since she was a child. He took her everywhere and let her ride on his neck.
It wasn't until Jiang Ning was six or seven years old and could no longer carry the baby that he stopped carrying her.
The neighbors all joked about Jiang Ning, saying that she grew up riding on Grandpa Jiang's neck.
Because of Jiang Ning, Grandpa Jiang had no idea how many times he had quarreled with Jiang's father and mother every year. Either it was because Jiang's mother didn't allow Jiang Ning to go to school, or it was because Jiang's mother beat and scolded Jiang Ning.
"It's okay." She shook her messy short hair and touched her swollen face: "I ran away, and was caught by her when I went home to read." She raised her face and smiled at her grandfather: "I was confused while reading."
Grandpa Jiang burst into tears after hearing this.
My grandfather is sixty years old, with gray hair and a thin and hunched figure.
Because Jiang's mother didn't want her to go to school, her elderly grandfather went to the mountains to get a job as a forest ranger, earning 80 yuan a month to support her studies and give her living expenses.
The most profound image in her memory is the back of her grandfather leaving home and walking slowly up the mountain time and time again.
Grandpa Jiang said: "Just go to high school, live on campus, and we'll be separated!"
Her family had been divided a long time ago. Grandma was given to her uncle and was taken care of by his family in his old age. Grandpa was given to their family and was taken care of by Jiang's father in his old age.
Grandpa Jiang was so thin that he was just a bag of bones because of his poor health.
As far as I can remember, my grandfather has always been this thin.
Jiang Ning burst into tears and responded with a nasal voice: "Yeah."
She also knew that everything would be fine once they went to high school and separated.
She smiled and said, "When I get into college, I will bring grandpa to the big city. He will live with me and I will take care of him in his old age!" She smiled brightly and said, "I will never come back."
Grandpa Jiang also smiled happily. He wanted his granddaughter to leave this poor little village and go to the big city.
"Okay, okay." He said, and wiped his eyes and nose with his rough big hands: "I don't want you to support me either, as long as you are well."
The old man felt so happy when he thought about his granddaughter getting into college and going to a big city.
Jiang Ning took out some dishes from the basket like offering treasures: "Come and try my cooking to see if it's delicious!"
Grandpa Jiang took a big bite with his chopsticks and said, "It's delicious. My granddaughter cooks the best!"
The grandfather and grandson sat under a pile of straw, with their backs to the gray sunset, smiling like two fools.
It was not until dark that Jiang's father, who had just finished harvesting rice, rushed to the rice field carrying the rice that had been dried on the ridge of the field. When he saw the food, he picked up the large porcelain bowl and started eating without saying anything.
While eating, he praised: "Today's dishes are delicious."
Being in his prime, he ate very quickly and had a huge appetite. He could finish a whole bowl as big as a hot pot in one meal.
After they finished eating, she took the empty bowl and chopsticks back.
By the time she got home, all the dishes she had left had been eaten, leaving only empty bowls and chopsticks lying messily on the table, waiting for her to come back and wash.
Seeing this scene, she was surprisingly calm and not surprised at all.
In the eyes of adults, including her brothers, this was what she should do.
I remember one time she didn’t want to wash the dishes, and her brother didn’t want to wash them either, so she and her brother started arguing, and the older brother blurted out, “Isn’t that what girls should do?”
She never washed dishes again after that.
It's not that absolute. When she lived alone, she still washed the dishes. Later, when she got a dishwasher, she was even more reluctant to do these things.
Her mother and all her relatives would say she was lazy whenever they saw her, and she would admit it, "Yes, I am lazy. You guys should be diligent and do it."
Since she stopped doing anything, everyone realized that they couldn't count on her, so they stopped counting on her.
Whether it's festivals, weddings of relatives or friends, or family gatherings, if there's any housework that needs to be done, no one would expect her to do it.
Anyway, she won't cook even if you call her. Even if she does, she will make trouble by breaking plates or bowls, or mistaking sugar for salt. The dish is so sweet that it's impossible to eat it, but she still enjoys eating it.
She is also very enthusiastic. As long as you call her, she will come over to "help" enthusiastically.
Later, when someone asked her to do housework, others would say, "Okay, okay, leave it there, I'll do it. How can she, a college student, do these things?"
Everyone assumed that she wouldn't.
They seemed to have forgotten that these were things she had been doing since she was a child.
She opened the cupboards and found the broth she had placed in the corner overnight was still there. In addition to meat, the broth also contained vegetables.
She served the meal, sat in the dark kitchen, ate the warm broth, and after dinner, she washed up and went to bed.
Before going to sleep, she lay in the tattered mosquito net, looking at the dark room, and was still thinking, this might be a dream. When she wakes up, will she still be the most promising Jiang Chu in the eyes of others?
Unfortunately, when she woke up, there was no Jiang Chu, only Jiang's mother's fierce slap on her thigh, which startled her awake and she shouted angrily: "What are you doing?"
After all, she had been a leader for many years. When Jiang's mother was yelled at, she shrank back guiltily, but then she was overwhelmed by even greater anger. She reached out to grab Jiang Ning's ear and said, "Why are you asking me? You're such a big girl, but you don't even wash the dishes at home. You put them on the table waiting for me to wash them, right? I should work like a slave for your family, right? I work from morning till night all day, and I only ask you to wash the dishes, but you don't even wash them. You're so lazy..."
Mother Jiang said as she pulled her hair and ears.
Jiang Ning was trapped in the mosquito net, unable to escape, and could only use her hands to block the attack. However, she was only thirteen years old, so how could she be a match for Jiang Ma, who had been doing farm work all year round and was tall and strong?
She was so angry that she kicked Jiang Ma away, tore open the mosquito net and ran off the bed, picked up the sickle and raised it to Jiang Ma: "At worst, I will die with you today, and I will give you this life!"
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