As soon as the twelfth lunar month began, there were several consecutive snowfalls, each one heavier than the last. The brigade had already gone door to door, beating gongs to notify everyone to rest and recuperate. There was no way around it; this year was really difficult. It was extremely hot in the first half and extremely cold in the second half.
At this critical moment, the saying "Rise up, you hungry and cold people" really came true. The brigade organized a militia squad, and every day someone knocked on the door to report their number, for fear that someone in someone's house might not be able to bear it.
The five chickens and two rabbits in Qiu Yuling's family could not survive the cold winter, and Qiu's mother decided that they must be killed.
People are already living such a hard life, how can we keep them here? Wouldn't that just attract attention?
Qiu Yuling knows that this "cold winter" will slowly pass by the end of this year, but Qiu's mother doesn't know. As the old saying goes, when people are extremely hungry, they will eat each other. How can her family raise chickens? Is that justified?
There was barely enough firewood. Since the heavy snow, all the members of the Qiu family moved to the big kang in the main hall. The order was Qiu Yuling, mother Qiu, father Qiu, Qiu Dashu, and Qiu Dashan.
No matter how anyone objects, it is useless. The firewood cannot be cut off. If it is cut off, people will die. But if it is not cut off, there will not be enough to burn.
Occasionally, when Qiu Yuling needed to relieve herself, she would sneak into the farm hut and drink some goat's milk to stay alive.
No one in the Qiu family starved to death. They kept a clay pot in the brazier all day, boiling smoked meat and multi-grain soup. They didn't eat it all, just hung on to their lives. At night, they buried the clay pot in the snow, which served as a natural refrigerator. The next day, they added some snow water and other ingredients to keep them alive.
There was nothing to do for the family to stay together, except sleeping or listening to parents chatting, and studying with my two brothers.
Thank God, although this place is poor, for some reason the villagers highly value reading, and none of the three sons and one daughter of the Qiu family became blind due to delays in education.
The days passed by in such a boring and hopeless way.
Only then did Qiu Yuling realize that something unfortunate had really happened. Li Xiaojuan's mother had passed away. It turned out that there was not enough firewood and food. The young wife was reluctant to let her two children suffer, so she went out to the firewood hill alone to collect firewood. She fainted from hunger and froze to death outside.
After shaking off the snow on his body and drying his trouser legs, Father Qiu lay down on the kang. Mother Qiu handed him a cup of hot water, and Father Qiu continued to chatter while drinking it.
Qiu Yuling was also curious. Where was her man? Where did Li Xiaojuan's father go?
"The Wuhu family has such a miserable life. Wuhu broke her leg, and her health has not improved since she gave birth to that little one. The last time I saw her, she looked so thin. I think she might be lacking in food.
Fourth Aunt is the same. It's already this late and you're still so serious. What's wrong with lending a hand?"
Mother Qiu sighed and lamented, obviously she knew some of the inside story.
But Qiu Yuling didn't know that what her parents said was vague, which kept people in suspense.
It wasn't that she loved gossip, but perhaps it was because it was a long winter and there was nothing to do, so she was really bored and decided to ask thoroughly.
Only then did we know that Li Wuhu was adopted into the second house, but his second uncle, who was the adopted father, lost his wife in middle age and married another wife. This wife was quite fertile and gave birth to three children in five years.
This made him a little embarrassed. His biological parents said that he was adopted, and his step-parents had their own biological children. It would have been fine at first, as he had grown up anyway. But when his wife gave birth and was in confinement, the elders from both sets of families encouraged her not to help.
It can be seen from the fact that the couple only had a daughter and a son after so many years that they are not the kind of people who don't care about having children. It's just that no matter how well you avoid it, you can't prevent accidents. But Li Xiaojuan's brother happened to come at the most difficult time.
Even if it's a year later, we can still get by.
Isn't that the end of it?
But I heard that Li Wuhu also stood up. A man dragged his broken leg and cried bitterly, saying that he was sorry for his wife. He said that since both sides disliked him so much, he would just pretend that he didn't exist.
From then on, he would drag his two children through life, and would never ask them for help even if he had to eat dirt...
"After listening, go to sleep quickly. I've never seen a child like you who likes to listen to adults' gossip so much." Mother Qiu slapped her daughter in annoyance, and the family entered the next standard routine - going to bed.
The family spent the last day of 1961 thinking about the second son who was far away.
Mother Qiu kept nagging about what to do with her son as he grew older, and whether the army would provide him with clothes and shoes. In short, there was nothing she didn't miss.
Qiu Yuling also followed her mother's example and loosened her trouser legs. Not to mention her and her third brother, even her eldest brother had grown a little taller and his trouser legs had become shorter. Otherwise, why would her mother suddenly remember that the second brother had grown taller?
The days passed slowly and we finally survived the cold winter.
Qiu Yuling became active again in the world, being called "Sister Ling" again.
This time, in order to repay the "favor" of the red bean paste bun, Wang Aihong was specially called. The Xialiuwan Scout Team traveled around the countryside in a mighty manner, and they never let go of anything flying in the sky or running in the fields.
Almost every family had a young man who could grow up, and they were all children. No one in the team said anything, but the children did become visibly stronger.
Even Li Xiaojuan got two little sparrows and a big rabbit leg in two "accidental" participations. She smiled rarely, but hurried home without eating a single bite.
Soon the glaciers melted and the land revived. Last year's snow water nourished this long-dried land, and spots of green had already broken through the ground.
Qiu Yuling returned to her daily routine. The good news was that school had started, but the bad news was that the little kids in their team spontaneously wanted to go with "Sister Ling".
There is no need for that, my dears.
In order to have the little bit of freedom left, she had to go out early and come back late to avoid the little kids' travel times. Of course, she would be caught once or twice by chance in order to help these little brats.
Whenever they travel with "Sister Ling", the friends always get a little more than usual, which makes their "Sister Ling" a legend as a "divine hunter".
Niu Wa felt that he and Qiu Yuling were from the same school. Although he was not as good as his senior sister, he was proud of it. He always talked about how good Sister Ling was. He inadvertently made many enemies for Qiu Yuling. Every day, there were little kids he didn't know who came to challenge her.
Unable to bear it any longer, Qiu Yuling held a meeting of the Xialiuwan team for this group of young rascals. The central idea was to summarize it into one: everyone should be humble and good at hiding their strength, so that they can achieve the goal of making a big splash when they do not make a sound.
The friends all roared in agreement and instantly understood why "Sister Ling" was so aloof. It turned out that she was trying to hide her strength and preserve it. Got it, got it!
Everyone agreed and said that they would keep a low profile in the future so that they could become true "masters"!
Qiu Yuling didn't care what they imagined. She picked up the two little rabbits that Niu Wa had "given" to her by smuggling them out of the space and went back to develop her breeding business.
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