At dawn, after Liu's mother and father finished breakfast, Liu's mother came to Xuemei's room and woke her up. "Xuemei, your father and I are going to work now. Hurry up and get up. Your younger brother and sister are already in your bed, and I've locked our room. The food for lunch is in the cupboard. Remember to lock the kitchen door when you leave. The key is on the desk in your room."
Xuemei woke up her younger siblings. "Qingya, Ruirui, Feifei, hurry up and get up. It's time for dinner."
After waking up, the four siblings changed into older clothes, brushed their teeth with willow branches, washed their faces with towels, and then took the sweet potatoes left by the Queen Mother in a small basket and a pot of water (the pot at home was still the military pot that Liu's father brought back when he retired from the army. Liu's father kept one new and one old for himself, and gave the new one to his grandparents).
Now, Liu's parents usually use one door while they go to work, and the four siblings share one. Xuemei locked the kitchen, hung the key around her neck, and went to close the other doors.
The four siblings walked towards the threshing ground, which was the house of Mr. Li, a small landlord in Liujia Village in the past. It was located in the center of the village, two miles away from Xuemei's home.
When the landlords were attacked, Landlord Li and his family fled to the other side of the river. Li's house was the first blue brick and tile house in the village. It had five large main rooms, two side rooms on each side, and a large cattle and pig pen.
After the Li family ran away, the house was taken over by the village. Many villagers wanted to move in, but it was difficult to allocate rooms, so three large main rooms were left. One was used as the village granary, one had two rooms on the second floor, which were used as the village committee office and the village farm tool warehouse, and the last room was usually used for village meetings.
The pig and cattle pens remained, later used as collective pig and cattle farms for the village. The other rooms were demolished, and the bricks and tiles were distributed to each household. Li's residence was surrounded by a 1.5-meter-high mud wall. Besides the building area, there were two or three acres of flat land, which, combined with the area where the rooms were demolished, was even larger. The village now generally uses it as a threshing ground for drying rice, corn, and other grains.
The four siblings arrived at the threshing ground and shared their sweet potatoes. Not long after, someone arrived with baskets of rice, placed them there, and then left with two empty baskets. The threshing ground was where young girls preparing for marriage, pregnant women, and elderly people dried, turned, and harvested the rice. Xuemei's only responsibility was to keep sparrows from stealing the rice on her bamboo drying mats.
"Qingya, take Ruirui to pick up grains. Bring the water bottle with you. When the bell rings at noon, come here and wait for me. Feifei, you are weak, so stay here with your elder sister to chase away sparrows."
About half an hour before work ended, Xuemei asked her younger brother Feifei to chase away sparrows while she took the two sparrows she'd caught in a basket home to cook. She cooked sweet potato rice and boiled water in a small iron pot. She then burned the sparrows' feathers, discarded their entrails, sprinkled them with salt, wrapped them in mud, and roasted them over the fire. She then went to the vegetable patch and brought back some cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers.
She fried some chili-flavored eggs and chili-flavored eggplant, then placed the rice, vegetables, and roasted sparrows in separate wooden bowls and placed them all in the rice basket. She added the freshly washed cucumbers and closed the lid. After locking the door, Xuemei, carrying the rice basket in one hand and a bamboo tube of boiled water in the other, headed for the threshing ground.
When they reached the threshing ground, Qingya had already taken a spot under a tree. Xuemei put her things under the tree and asked Qingya to call her brothers over to get some shade. It was the hottest time of the year, so there weren't usually many sparrows around.
It wasn't long before Liu's father and mother came over. Their faces were sunburned and sweat kept dripping down their faces. "Dad and Mom, please sit down and rest for a while."
After the sweat dried, Xuemei handed the water in the bamboo tube to her parents to drink, and after they drank it, she filled their water bottles.
As soon as Liu's mother opened the lunch basket, she heard the children calling for Grandpa, Grandma, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and Big Brother. Seeing Grandpa reminded Xuemei of her dream from the previous night, and she felt relieved to see that his leg was fine. Grandpa and Grandma are both 55 years old and still in good health. They plan to continue doing about 70% of the work this year, but next year they'll just work for 5 or 6 centimeters. At the beginning of the year, Grandpa decided that they would stay with the second son's family. Starting this year, Liu Xuemei's family will give them 300 kilograms of coarse grains, 100 kilograms of rice (65-75 kilograms of rice), and five yuan every six months. Other gifts for festivals and special occasions are at the discretion of Liu Xuemei's family.
My second uncle, Liu Guanghui, is 34 years old. My second aunt, Wang Shuihua, is my grandmother's cousin's daughter and is 33 years old. They have three sons and one daughter. Their eldest son, Liu Mingzheng, is 13 years old and in the first grade of junior high school. Their second son, Liu Mingwen, is 11 years old, the same age as Xuemei, and is in the fourth grade. Their third son, Liu Mingwu, is eight years old and in the second grade. Their youngest daughter, Liu Juhua, is six years old. (The current school system is five, two, and two.)
Second Aunt came over to see what was inside the lunch basket, but Mother Liu had already covered it. "Sister-in-law, your husband's daughters are the best. Xuemei is older now, so I'm saving her energy for you. I prepared the food so early and brought it here. My daughter Juhua still only knows how to follow my third child around."
Liu's mother didn't like dealing with Wang Shuihua. She gave birth to her two daughters around the same time as her two sons, and she was constantly bullied by Wang Shuihua. She even told her mother-in-law that she was destined to have daughters, and that the father of the child would end the family line. This led to a bad relationship between Liu's mother and her mother-in-law, which only eased after she gave birth to two sons.
"His second aunt, what are you talking about? I have to speak up for my nephews and nieces. Mingzheng is a grown man now and has to go to the fields with you. Mingwen has to look after the rice and go back to cook for you. Mingwu is also sensible and brings his sister to pick up grains. Hey, you see, this person is very hard to talk to. Your Mingwen brought Mingwu and Juhua to bring you food."
Second Aunt was very pleased with what Liu's mother said, but she didn't show it on her face. "Those naughty kids are so obedient. Okay, Mingwen is here, let's go eat too." Second Aunt and the others also found a place to sit down.
"Okay, let's eat!" Liu's mother said after Wang Hua left. She divided the food, tore up the sparrows, and took a small portion, put it in a small bowl, and handed it to Xuemei. She also took two cucumbers, and Xuemei took them to your grandparents.
After dinner, Liu's mother and father rested under a tree for half an hour before going back to work. In the afternoon, after Xuemei finished work and washed the dishes from lunch, she heard Liu's mother calling her. "Xuemei, your grandfather just missed a step on the ridge of the field and broke his leg. Your father, uncle, and I will take him to the commune hospital. I'll get out the food for tonight. You go to the vegetable garden and cook the porridge and vegetables. Use less oil."
When Xuemei heard that her grandfather had injured his leg, she remembered the dream she had last night and felt very guilty, wondering if it was because she had just had a random dream.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
