A few days later, not only did the Wuchang rice sent by my aunt arrive, but the Shancheng glutinous rice that my aunt hadn't mentioned in her letter also arrived. Each of them sent fifty catties, totaling one hundred catties, all of which were top-quality rice. How much affection must have been contained in this!
They rarely eat rice, and even when they do, it's usually rice porridge. They only get to eat real rice when they want to treat themselves to a special meal.
But this time, a hundred catties arrived at once. Glutinous rice is suitable for making porridge, while Wuchang rice is suitable for steaming. When the whole family gathered together to steam a big pot of rice, Xiao Jiu ate the crunchy rice crust and happily exclaimed, "Grandma, it's so delicious! This rice is so fragrant and sweet!"
Grandma looked at her with a loving expression, "Eat more if you like it. This is a gift of filial piety from your aunts, full of love, so it's naturally sweet!"
Before her aunts sent rice back, the rice jar at home was almost empty. Now that it's full, it gave her a good opportunity to fill it up.
Her warehouse was overflowing with rice, not just Wuchang rice, but also rice priced at over one yuan per kilogram, ranging from ten yuan to over ten yuan per kilogram. You could eat whatever you wanted from anywhere; any bag you picked out would be considered high-quality rice in those days. This was all thanks to the efforts of agricultural scientists like Grandpa Yuan. Without them, where would the happiness of future generations come from?
It is precisely because everyone has eaten their fill that so much waste occurs, and Xiaojiu feels heartbroken whenever she thinks about it.
Born in this era, she realized just how scarce food was. Logically speaking, the Tao family's standard of living should have been quite good, but even so, everyone would subconsciously lick their bowls clean after each meal. Moreover, there was never any leftover food, and even the soup was shared by her grandfather and father. The bowls were spotless, without any oil or grease, making washing pots and dishes incredibly easy.
These days made her cherish food more and more. Even though she had a warehouse, the scarcity of food in front of her had instilled in her a respectful attitude towards food.
This time, both aunts sent back local specialties of cured pork and red sausage, but Grandma couldn't bear to eat them and insisted on saving them for the New Year. In the letter, her aunts said that these foods could be stored, and as soon as she heard that they could be stored, Grandma wanted to wait until everyone was at home during the New Year to eat them.
Moreover, both my eldest and second aunts instructed in their letters not to let my father send them food and drink. They said the South was richer than this place, and the Northeast had developed industry. They were both paid employees and should be better off than their families. Asking them to take good care of the elderly and children was the greatest compassion they could show them.
Father finished reading the letter with red eyes. Grandfather probably thought of his two uncles through the letter. His hand, which was smoking his pipe, was trembling slightly. Even Grandma would shed tears from time to time and often sighed with emotion.
"If your two uncles were alive, how happy our family would be!"
Unfortunately, the deceased left their remains on the distant border, leaving nothing but medals and personal belongings.
Every year during the Qingming Festival, my grandparents can only pour out their hearts to their memorial tablets, which is heartbreaking. So many years have passed, yet they still haven't been able to move on. It truly shows how pitiful parents are.
Xiao Jiu can now wipe her own bottom, eat by herself, sleep by herself, and get out of bed to find an adult when she wakes up. She can even wash her face, feet, and bottom independently. With such self-care ability, her parents want to send her to a daycare, but she doesn't want to go.
"I don't want to go to school. School costs money. Grandma, I'm fine. I'll stay home with you and I promise I won't cause you any trouble."
Look at that pitiful little face, which made the old lady beam with joy, and she pulled her aside and kissed and rubbed against her for a while.
"Why doesn't Xiaojiu want to go? Wouldn't it be better if we sent you to school? There are lots of friends at school, you can play with them, sleep with them, it'll be so much fun."
Xiao Jiu immediately shook her head vigorously: "Xiao Jiu doesn't like Hu Zi, doesn't like Gou Dan, and doesn't want to be friends with them. I'll stay at home, and my brothers will teach me to read."
What's the point of attending a childcare class? It's just a bunch of little kids, it's boring. It's better to stay home and help Grandma raise chickens and ducks. You can improve the family's meals from time to time. Going to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables, dig potatoes, and pluck sweet potato leaves, which of these tasks is better than going to the childcare class?
They only send their children there because they have no one else to take care of them. With so many free people in her family, why would she need to go? It's a waste of money, and she won't learn anything. Being locked up like a bird in a cage restricts her freedom. No wonder she'll like it. Even if she wants to go to school, it's not too late to start first grade when she's five or six.
Nowadays, students generally start school at seven and graduate from primary school at twelve or thirteen. Many people think that starting school at six is too early, but this doesn't exclude some naturally gifted learners, like her. There will still be a difference between starting school at five or six in the future. If you want to go to university, you have to start school early and graduate early so that you can graduate before the deadline.
Before first grade, she wanted to enjoy this rural life.
Seeing her insistence, Grandma stopped mentioning it. Every day, she would take her and her two older sisters to the sweet potato field to turn over the sweet potato vines. Because there was a lot of land, it couldn't be finished in just one or two days. Moreover, they had to go before dawn when the dew was heavy. Although it was dirty, it was cool. After playing for a while, the weather would get too hot to bear.
So Xiao Jiu, who loves to sleep, usually misses this trip. Another option is to go around 5 or 6 pm when the sun is about to set. At this time, although there is no dew, there are mosquitoes. Every time, Xiao Jiu feels like she is going to deliver blood. It seems that if she doesn't come back with a head full of bites, she would be letting down her diet for more than a year. These damned mosquitoes, do they really know whose blood smells good?
Grandma couldn't bear to see Xiaojiu get bitten, but there was no one at home. Grandpa went to the fields with them. Her brothers wouldn't get home until after six o'clock after school. She wasn't comfortable leaving her alone at home to sleep, so she had no choice but to bring her to the fields.
She doesn't work, nor can she, but she's very happy to be in the field because she can catch grasshoppers, and not only grasshoppers, but also crickets and katydids. Once she catches them, she puts them in the little basket her grandfather wove for her, covers it, and then the chickens can have a good meal when they get home.
Because she feeds the chickens every day, now their chickens, ducks, and geese don't squawk when they see her anymore; they just surround her and get really excited!
She remembers that when she was little, the big white goose used to peck at her bottom. Now that there are insects to eat, she only remembers that she was the little mistress of the house.
Look, even poultry knows how to read people's faces; how mercenary!
While her grandparents and older sisters were working, she would catch insects in the cool corner of the field, getting herself all dirty and covered in dirt every day. But she was well-behaved and sensible, and would even carry water to them. Although she was only one year and three or four months old, she could already walk very steadily. Even on uneven ground, she never fell. After all, she was carrying water for drinking while working, and every step she took was a tentative one.
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