Chapter 20
It was almost noon. Lin Youqing counted the time and went into the kitchen to prepare lunch.
His mother, Old Lady Lin, was picked up by his uncle from Panzi Village early in the morning. They had almost finished eating the dumplings from the morning, and there were only three of them eating lunch at home. Lin Youqing was not very good at cooking, so he planned to cook some noodles with some cabbage leaves and stir-fry some leeks and eggs.
"Jiang Jiang, can you cook some noodles for lunch?"
Jiang Jiang is not picky about food. When she lived in Uncle Zhou Fugui's house, she sometimes came home late from work and missed mealtime. Zhou Fugui's wife would pour the leftover rice and vegetable juice into a bowl, add some cold water and throw it to her as a meal. Whenever this happened, Yinhua would make faces at her.
Later, Zhou Fugui's wife drove her out of the Zhou family. In order to avoid starving to death, she had to learn to make fire and cook by herself. She boiled wild vegetables in water, cooked wild vegetables into sweet potato porridge, made wild vegetable dumplings with rice bran, and ate all kinds of wild fruits, wild mushrooms and tree roots.
"Dad, let me help light the fire."
Lin Youqing was just about to say no when he saw his daughter had moved a small stool over and sat down. She skillfully grabbed a handful of dry straw and stuffed it into the stove, lit the fire, added some firewood, and the fire was soon lit.
Lin Youqing felt complicated, thinking about how Jiang Jiang looked pale and thin, malnourished, and the food she ate and where she lived. He thought about how much suffering a five-year-old child must have endured to be able to do all these things so skillfully.
The water boiled. Lin Youqing took out some noodles from the cupboard, put a handful of noodles into the pot, threw the cabbage leaves in to blanch them, added some lard, salt and soy sauce, and three bowls of steaming cabbage leaf noodle soup were ready.
There were cleaned leeks in the basket. Lin Youqing took them to the chopping board and cut them, then beat two eggs. After a while, a simple and delicious dish of leeks and eggs was ready.
The noodle soup was too hot, so Lin Youqing didn't let Jiang Jiang serve it. He asked her to call He Guijuan to eat. The three of them had lunch together. He Guijuan picked the eggs from the leeks and put them into her daughter and husband's bowls.
The noodles were added with lard and tasted very fragrant. The cabbage leaves were crispy and sweet. Jiang Jiang held the bowl and drank all the noodle soup. He touched his round belly and burped happily.
After lunch, as there was nothing else to do, Jiang Jiang went back to the house with her mother. Covered with a thick and warm quilt, Jiang Jiang snuggled in He Guijuan's arms, hugged He Guijuan, and had a comfortable nap.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, all the adults and children who had visited relatives came back. Jiang Jiang looked around the yard and saw only several children in the family sharing oil cakes, but Fengzhen was the only one missing.
"Brother Shuanzhu, have you seen Sister Fengzhen?"
"I didn't see it. Go look in the kitchen and the backyard... Do you want to eat some fried cakes?" Shuanzhu looked up at her.
Jiang Jiang took a look and saw that it should be the fried cake left over from the New Year's Eve dinner. Jiang Jiang remembered that the fried cake was filled with brown sugar. It was sweet and soft when she took a bite. She swallowed and said, "Then give me one more piece and I'll give it to Sister Fengzhen."
Jiang Jiang went to the kitchen with two pieces of fried cakes in his pocket, but didn't see Fengzhen. He then went to the backyard where chickens and ducks were raised and the pigpen, but still didn't see anyone. He was a little puzzled. Could it be that Sister Fengzhen went up the mountain to collect grass for the pigs?
She went to the place where she usually put the basket and saw that it was gone.
Jiang Jiang went back to the house and found a piece of waste newspaper, and wrapped up the two fried cakes. Feng Yin was originally fighting with her six-year-old brother Cao Gen for the last fried cake, but when she saw Jiang Jiang leaving, she stopped fighting for the fried cake and found an excuse to slip out.
Feng Yin followed Jiang Jiang up the mountain, following about ten meters behind her, not too far or too close. Her heart suddenly started beating violently. She had been keeping an eye on Jiang Jiang for several days, but this damn girl was either with Lin Youqing and his wife, or with Feng Zhen, that stupid person. She was never alone, so she didn't even have a chance to make a move.
There is no one in this mountain. If you go deeper into it, the terrain is slippery and the roads are steep. If something unexpected happens, you might die without anyone knowing... That's normal, right?
Feng Yin lowered his head, fumbled in the grass, and finally picked up a large, sharp and handy stone.
She didn't mean to be so vicious...she could only blame this wild girl for getting in her way.
After Fengzhen returned from Hongqi Village with her parents, she took the basket of grass for pigs and left the house and went up the mountain, even though Zhang Yueju had said that they didn't need to collect grass for pigs during the New Year holidays.
Thinking back to this morning, Fengzhen was still happy. Although she didn't get new clothes made for her this year, after her mother went to the market to buy cloth and food for her brother, she used the remaining two cents to buy her two red silk flower headbands. The silk flower headbands were bright red, like the azaleas blooming in the mountains, but they would never wither.
Fengzhen tied her hair into two ponytails with silk flower hairbands. She looked prettier in the mirror than usual. She held her mother's hand and walked along the path to her grandmother's house. She felt very happy.
Every time she went back to her parents' home, it was the most glorious and proud time for Li Hongmei. Her sisters were not as well married as she was. Every time she went back to her parents' home, she would bring some meat and snacks. Looking at those sisters, they were dressed poorly and the things they brought were just pickled vegetables and steamed buns, which were not presentable. However, her sisters would always try to curry favor with her with words.
The children of each family went to primary school. When the adults sat together to drink tea and chat, they couldn't help but talk about the grades of each family's children. When they heard that other children had scored 80, 90, or 100 points, and then asked Fengzhen who was picking her fingers, she said that she only got 58 points, not even passing. Everyone couldn't help laughing. Listening to the laughter of several adults, Li Hongmei felt like she was slapped in the face. Her own decent reputation was shattered.
Li Hongmei was embarrassed and finished her lunch with a bad look on her face. On the way back, she couldn't help scolding Feng Zhen, and Lin Laoer's face also gloomy.
Fengzhen was so aggrieved that she had no place to vent. She did not dare to cry at home, fearing that she would be beaten and scolded again. So she could only hide in this deserted place by herself.
After crying her heart out, Feng Zhen listened to the gurgling of a stream and the sound of melting snow not far away, and she felt sad. Even if she died, would no one care?
She has always been the child her parents cared least about. She worked diligently just to make her family pay more attention to this neglected and taciturn child. She was also the student the teacher paid the least attention to in the class, and no one wanted to play with her. Her life was a complete tragedy.
Fengzhen closed her eyes and two lines of tears flowed down.
Let her disappear quietly and go with the flow of water. I just don’t know if her family will feel pain because of her disappearance after she leaves.
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