The weather in October was still so cold. Qiu Yuling shivered and emerged from the quilt only to realize that today was the weekend, so she crawled back in.
Unfortunately, just as she retracted it, she was quickly pulled out by Qiu's mother. Qiu Yuling glanced at Qiu's mother and swallowed the curse in her throat. She couldn't add insult to injury to Qiu's mother's already limited maternal love.
She put on her clothes listlessly and went to her grandmother's house with the highest instructions given to her by her mother Qiu. In fact, in this area, people usually call her grandmother's house "the outsiders' house" behind others' backs.
Originally, they were planning to wait a few days after picking cotton before Qiu's mother would take them there. Now it's mid-October and conscription has begun. Qiu's mother has no idea when they will leave.
But no matter when they leave, they have to prepare for their son in advance. They have to make two pairs of shoes, one pair of cotton shoes and one pair of plain shoes, and also prepare a set of clothes. Mother Qiu is not sure whether the army will provide them, so she is always worried about her son when he is away from home, so she wants to prepare as much as possible.
Perhaps because there were many children at that age, and they were not well fed or clothed, things did not seem that precious. Anyway, Qiu's mother entrusted Qiu Yuling with an important task, and she did not think there was anything wrong or unsafe about a kid who was less than ten years old going back to her parents' home to get things for her.
Qiu Yuling went out empty-handed, carrying her rag bag.
After leaving the brigade, she took advantage of the fact that no one was around to smuggle out two gray rabbits. She expertly tied their legs and hung them on her schoolbag. She heard that her second uncle could make fur. This kind of rabbit didn't look very good, but it should be enough to make two knee pads for Father Qiu.
Mr. Qiu starts rubbing his legs whenever the weather gets cold recently. He says that they were frozen when he was working on canal repairs a few years ago.
Qiu Yuling was on foot very quickly, arriving at her grandparents' house with a mission in mind. Well, she wasn't familiar with them...
Pushing open the gate, it was quiet. Qiu Yuling took a deep breath and uttered a neither loud nor soft voice, "Grandma, I'm coming!"
Apart from the magpies in the tree, there were no other sounds in the yard. Qiu Yuling retreated and returned to the main road. Oh, she had indeed entered the wrong door!
Shangquan Village is close to Yancao Lake. Although the water has dried up due to severe drought in recent years, the groundwater is still better than elsewhere, so the village is somewhat richer.
The last time she came here was not long after she arrived. She was completely confused at that time. Every step she took only added to her collapsed Taoist faith. She didn't pay much attention at all. Therefore, even though she entered the wrong door this time, she didn't know where the correct door was!
Fortunately, everyone was at work at that time, so even if she made a mistake while weighing the two rabbits, no one would notice.
Just as she hesitated to move forward, a dark hand slapped her shoulder from behind. Qiu Yuling turned around reflexively, and before she knew it, she shouted the slogan "I'll fight!"
"I saw it was Ling Ling Wa from a distance. What were you doing sneaking around at someone else's door?"
Ah? An acquaintance?
Qiu Yuling raised her hand and put it down, stroking her hair. However, she did not dare to speak rashly, as she did not know how to address the dark and thin man in front of her.
"What? Didn't you say everything was fine? Why are you still so confused?" The thin dark man said as he reached out to touch Qiu Yuling's forehead.
"I don't have a fever! Let's go back to the house with Fourth Uncle."
"Here, fourth uncle!" Since he was my uncle, it was easy. Qiu Yuling handed two medium-sized rabbits to the thin and dark man.
"Hey, such a fat rabbit, where did it come from?"
Qiu Yuling took out a slingshot, pulled out a small stone from her schoolbag, and shot an arrow at the sparrow on the tree. The target object fell vertically.
"Oh! Sure, Linglingwa, your aim is pretty good! Let's go in and show off to your grandma."
As he said that, he took Qiu Yuling's hand and walked forward, asking as he walked why she came alone and why she didn't ask her brother to bring her over.
"I don't let my third brother take me to school in town anymore. I go there by myself."
"Lingling is really capable. She has grown up so quickly." Her fourth uncle seemed very pleased and ruffled Qiu Yuling's hair with his big hand like a palm-leaf fan.
......
Being patted on the head is the most annoying thing~
"Mom, Lingling is here. She almost walked into the wrong door. I saw her trying to pry through the crack of Aunt Yan's door. Hahaha..."
My dark and thin fourth uncle is a big mouth, confirmed!
"Do you look like an uncle?" An old lady with bound feet walked out from the main room.
He was wearing a blue-gray jacket with a slanted collar, his gray hair was neatly tied behind his head, his skin was fair and his face was kind.
When she saw Qiu Yuling, she waved, "Lingling, come here, grandma."
Qiu Yuling didn't have much impression of the old lady. Not knowing the details, she was particularly clever and walked up to the old lady in a few steps.
The old lady held Qiu Yuling's hand and asked her about her well-being, even asking why she came here alone.
Not only did the old lady have a kind face, but her words and actions also had a different temperament. Qiu Yuling did not dare to make excuses, so she told her about the conscription and how she had gone to school alone a long time ago.
While speaking, the old lady let go of Qiu Yuling's hand, went into the inner room of the main hall, and after a while, she took out a handful of raisins wrapped in a handkerchief. Seeing that Qiu Yuling had followed her into the main room, she simply asked her to go to the kang to eat.
Qiu Yuling was not craving for raisins, as she was not a real child, but she could not resist the old lady's enthusiasm, so she had to move to the kang with her.
She looked at the raisins in the handkerchief. They were so dry that she didn't know how long they had been there. She guessed that the old lady was reluctant to eat them and only took them out to treat her because she saw she was coming.
Qiu Yuling ate one herself and handed one to the old lady, "Grandma, you eat one too."
Unable to refuse, the old lady put one in her mouth and then asked Qiu Yuling if she could understand what she was learning. She said she couldn't be afraid of hard work at school! Her daughter needed to learn more to be blessed...
Qiu Yuling felt that this grandma was very unusual. After just half a day, she already felt that her grandma was definitely not the kind of old country lady who favored boys over girls or considered a woman's virtue to be untalented and was proud of being blind.
Moreover, Qiu Yuling made another important discovery. The outline of her face was somewhat similar to that of her grandmother. Her mother Qiu was more heroic, while she was more gentle. Her father Qiu was a rough and uncouth man, so rough that Qiu Yuling could hardly tell his appearance.
Qiu Yuling had always suspected that she might not be a child of the Qiu family. After all, she had grown taller in the past six months due to improved nutrition, but she found that she did not look like her brothers. Now, looking at her grandmother, Qiu Yuling finally knew the origin of her version of the family.
Yuling's grandmother was extremely patient. The old lady sat on the kang and asked questions while she sorted the hemp ropes one by one. Twenty ropes were used to tie a small mustard seed, and there were a total of thirty-five ropes in total. Even though Qiu Yuling couldn't do any housework, she felt that it was too much. How long would the old lady have to twist the ropes to make such a big bundle?
But her grandmother would not let her refuse. Not only did she prepare a hemp rope, but she also had a rag bag with floral patterns, which was better than the one Qiu Yuling was carrying now.
The scraps of cloth were cut into small pieces and pieced together to make a large peony. One side of the base was made of scraps of blue cloth of varying shades, and the other side was made of gray cloth. What was rare was that a small pocket was sewn inside.
There was no flap at the opening, but instead a blue cloth rope was passed through the opening, with two delicate morning glory-shaped flowers hanging at both ends of the bag.
Qiu Yuling's eyes were wide open!
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