When Lin Guoqing woke up after an hour's sleep, he saw the neatly arranged spring bamboo shoots on the floor of the main hall and a pile of yellow and white mushrooms on the table.
Lin Guoqing: "...my mother?"
Chen Chunhua nodded, "Your mother."
Lin Guoqing: "...then where is she?"
Chen Chunhua: "Back to the mountains to pick mushrooms again."
Lin Guoqing felt like he was scratching his scalp. "Chunhua, what kind of medicine did you give my mom? Why did she suddenly... suddenly... get better?"
He actually wanted to ask if she had suddenly gone crazy. Otherwise, how could someone who had been lazy all her life suddenly become so diligent?
Chen Chunhua was thinking about the possibility of her family cultivating the wild mushrooms themselves. She rolled her eyes speechlessly when she heard this and picked up the small branch basket on the ground.
"Have you ever seen your mother weave a basket like this?"
Lin Guoqing shook his head. "She can't even touch a tree, how can she weave a basket?"
"Isn't that right?" Chen Chunhua put the mushroom back and sighed. "I've just been thinking about this carefully. You said before that your mother escaped from famine?"
"Yes." Lin Guoqing nodded.
"Has she really not done any work since she arrived here?" Chen Chunhua asked seriously.
Lin Guoqing continued to scratch his head, "I don't know, my grandma said that she doesn't do anything..."
Chen Chunhua: ...
Lin Guoqing’s eldest sister Lin Yulan was born in 1941, and Liang Shengdi came here around 1940.
Liang Shengdi never said where she fled from, nor did she say whether she was fleeing from famine. It was all guessed by others.
There were wars everywhere at that time. If a farmer planted some crops today, they would very likely be destroyed by a bomb tomorrow, and there might not be even a grain of rice left. So there were many places suffering from famine.
When they arrived in Sihe Village and Lin Guoqing's grandmother said she wanted to marry her, she looked at him first before agreeing. Lin Guoqing's father was not bad looking, much better looking than the sixty-year-old lame landowner her parents had chosen for her.
And at least she would marry a real wife, not a concubine, and would not have to be bullied by the first wife. Of course she was happy about it.
Liang Shengdi had good ideas at that time. After getting married, the three of them would live a good life. The husband would farm, and she could go up the mountain to pick wild vegetables. In her free time, she could also weave some baskets and sell them.
Her father was a carpenter who could make very thin pieces of wood, which her mother then wove into baskets and even mats for chairs.
She was the eldest daughter and was arranged to learn basket weaving when she could walk. However, whether it was weaving baskets or picking game, very little of it ended up in her hands and stomach.
She has never seen her grandmother since she was born, so there are no conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in her family. Her parents are the only ones who make the decisions.
So Liang Shengdi thought that after she got married, she would be able to be the head of the household. Even if the money she earned was not much, at least she could fill her stomach. She could not afford bird's nest, shark fin, or braised pork elbow, but at least she would not have to eat sweet potatoes for every meal, right?
Unexpectedly, it was not her turn to make decisions in the family. All the money was in the hands of her mother-in-law, as were the grain bags. Even the money earned by the man from selling the baskets he had woven was in the hands of her mother-in-law.
My mother-in-law said that poor families have to stick together to survive. They only have a few dollars to begin with, so how can they have enough to eat if they don’t pool their money together?
Well, she does use it!
The old lady didn't need to either, saying that life had to go on and there were many places to spend money. They ate sweet potatoes and wild vegetables for every meal, occasionally soybeans mixed with wild vegetables, or boiled fish, boiled shrimps, and boiled crabs. In short, they would eat anything without oil or water.
Liang Shengdi was unhappy. She had only eaten one egg during her pregnancy with Lin Yulan, and her old mother-in-law kept talking about that egg until the day she passed away.
Later, a famine broke out. Not to mention eggs, all the fish and shrimps in the river dried up. We were lucky to have wild vegetables to eat.
Liang Shengdi has completely given up.
Why do people work? They say they work to eat, but even after working, she never had enough to eat. Even on the day she gave birth, she could only drink porridge and not even a bowl of rice. So why did she work?
It’s better to lie down and save some energy.
Fortunately, although her husband listens to his mother, at least he won't starve her to death or beat her for not working.
That is, he got angry with her twice when she accidentally crushed the child to death, but she didn't do it on purpose.
She was starving but still had to breastfeed her child. When she said she wanted to drink a bowl of chicken soup, her mother-in-law would ask her why she didn't marry an emperor.
She did think about it, but hadn't the emperor been defeated long ago?
Oh, forget it, it’s better not to mention this trivial matter.
Liang Shengdi is looking for mushrooms all over the mountain right now!
Although she ate sweet potatoes this morning and at noon, she had eggs and oil yesterday and the night before!
Her daughter-in-law is much more reliable in what she says and does than her old mother-in-law. She is very consistent in what she says. If she says she will make 7 eggs every day, she will definitely not crack 6 and a half.
She said that if you make more money and eat meat, there will definitely be meat.
Hey~ Why didn't Chen Chunhua want to eat meat a few years ago? If I had told her this earlier, she would have gotten up in the middle of the night to fertilize, and she would have done it!
Liang Shengdi's fingers flew as she wove another willow basket, one that was even bigger than the previous one. This one could now hold even more mushrooms.
At noon, some people would come to the mountains to dig some food during their lunch break. If an acquaintance from Sihe Village suddenly saw Liang Shengdi, they would be surprised for a long time.
"National Day mom? Why are you here?"
Liang Shengdi grumbled, "Why can't I be here?"
Liang Shengdi started working, which was considered big news in Sihe Village.
Nowadays, it is really impossible for a poor family to be as lazy as Liang Shengdi. If a five or six-year-old child is lazy, he will be taught a lesson. Don't try to be like Uncle Guoqing's mother.
Lin Shuying was walking home from school with her friends when she heard Yinchun beside her poke her.
"Shuying, isn't that your grandma?"
Lin Shuying turned her head and saw that it was true.
"What's that basket your grandma is holding? Why is she carrying it herself?"
The most the children in the village had seen Liang Shengdi take their water cups was their own. Otherwise, at most they would help up their grandchildren if they fell in front of her. They wouldn't even let her hold them, saying that she didn't have the strength.
Today he is carrying a big basket and walking with great vigor.
Lin Shuying was curious, so she said goodbye to her classmates and ran to her grandmother.
"Grandma, what is this? Do you want me to help carry it?"
When Liang Shengdi saw her eldest granddaughter, her mouth widened and she waved her hands.
"No, no, let's go home. We're having fried meat with mushrooms tonight!"
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