It was already past four o'clock in the afternoon on New Year's Day when Wan Feng's family of four arrived at his grandmother's house.
There were two or three children setting off firecrackers on the street in front of my grandma's house, and the sounds of firecrackers could be heard sporadically.
Mother and sister went to grandma's house, but Wan Feng and his brother did not go in but stayed with the other children.
There was almost no barrier between the children. With just a few words, Wan Feng started playing with the children from the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, they only played for a while before their uncle came out and pulled the two brothers into the house, one by one, to eat.
At that time, the main diet in rural areas was still coarse grains. Even during the New Year, there were still cornmeal cakes. Wan Feng's younger brothers and sisters couldn't eat them, but Wan Feng ate them very happily.
The fatigue from several days of traveling finally took over, and after dinner Wan Feng fell asleep on the kang.
The child was very curious. Early the next morning, two children from the neighboring families on the left and right of his grandmother's house came to play with Wan Feng.
When Wan Feng came back from Longjiang, he was carrying a deck of playing cards and a set of chess pieces, which looked very similar to chess. He planned to play with the children at his grandmother's house, but to his disappointment, none of the children there knew how to play.
They play hoop roller skates and a game of chase called electric skating.
At that time, the Chinese New Year was the most exciting time for children. Not only could they wear new clothes and eat food that was a little better than usual, but most importantly, they could set off firecrackers.
Later generations of children didn't even like setting off firecrackers. Wan Feng remembered that his son never went outside to set off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year.
The kid called the blacksmith still had a few whips left in his pocket. The kids ran out to the street and shouted, and the whips were all gone after crackling, and then they stared at each other with wide eyes.
"Do you have money?" The kid from the neighbor on the left named Cong Xicheng asked Wan Feng.
Wan Feng nodded and said yes. Although they spent the New Year on the train, their mother still gave them New Year's money, one dollar each for Wan Feng and his brother.
That was a huge sum of money in 1980.
At that time, one dollar could buy eleven books, twenty-five firecrackers and twenty sets of one hundred-shot whips for a child.
Wan Feng's father earned a salary in the military corps, which at the time was fifty-three yuan and three cents a month, and was considered a high-income earner.
"Oh, you have one dollar!" Cong Xicheng and the blacksmith said enviously, as their New Year's money was only ten cents.
"Then let's go to the cooperative to buy a whip?" The blacksmith's eyes flashed with gold.
The blacksmith's name is Jiang Hongjun, and he is nine years old this year. When he was eight years old, he went to the brigade to play and ran to the blacksmith's furnace to watch the fun. He found the blacksmith's ironmaking very interesting and watched for a whole morning.
Who would have thought that after he got home, he picked up the shovel and matches to go for iron work. He chose a place where he could go for iron work.
Every household here burns grass for cooking and heating, and there are haystacks of varying sizes in front of every house.
Jiang Hongjun chose to forge iron under his family's haystack. The consequences of lighting a match can be imagined. Fortunately, there was no wind and it was discovered early, so in the end only half of his family's haystack was burned.
Being beaten was inevitable, but what he didn't expect was that the nickname of a blacksmith was dropped on him out of thin air, and this nickname accompanied him until the end of his life at the age of 34.
The cooperative that the blacksmith mentioned is called the Rural Cooperative Society. Just like the shops that are everywhere now, the farmers called it that often and it became a cooperative society.
At that time, there was only one cooperative in a rural brigade, which was the commercial center of the brigade.
The store of the Jiangwei Brigade is in Shutun, about two miles away from the Wahou Brigade.
The blacksmith's suggestion was responded to by all the children present, including Wan Feng's younger brother Wan Jun, but was opposed by Wan Feng.
"Buy shit! It's New Year and the cooperative is closed. It's pointless to go."
All the children were dumbfounded.
If there are no firecrackers, then go ice skating on the Inna River behind the house. Children never feel lonely.
The Yina River is twenty meters away from the backyard of Wanfeng’s grandmother’s house. In winter, the Yina River is as smooth as a mirror, and you can clearly see the bottom of the river at a glance.
Wan Feng played ice sledding with them on the ice.
There were a few kids skating about a mile upstream from them, but no one could recognize who they were because of the distance.
Although Wan Feng's family claimed to live by the Longjiang River, they were at least more than a hundred miles away from the river. Moreover, their company was built on a hill, more than five miles away from the nearest river.
So, he had hardly ever played on the ice and had no experience, so he had a lot of fun.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
