Yao Anna has always been able to endure hardship, so she doesn't have high demands for food and drink. In addition, she thinks that the food cooked by the village grandmothers is quite good, so she naturally asked her assistant to pay for her meals and asked Grandma Song at the entrance of the village to cook for her every day.
"Grandma's cooking is really delicious, especially the pickled vegetable hot pot, it's absolutely amazing."
As Yao Anna pulled Song Mengmeng outside, she introduced the local food to her: "It's sour and spicy, and it seems to be made by pickling chili peppers and ground rice."
Every household in the village knows how to make these, including pickled vegetables and other things; you're sure to like them.
Compared to the courtyards where they lived that had been renovated, Grandma Song's courtyard had completely preserved the characteristics of local dwellings.
There was a flat threshing ground in front of the entrance, surrounded by several vegetable gardens with fragrant fruits and vegetables.
The stone mill was placed in a corner of the threshing ground, and several geese and ducks were floating and playing in the small fishpond next to the threshing ground.
Song Mengmeng paused in the middle of the threshing ground for a moment, and then saw the little girl who had just gone to call them bring out a square table from the main room. She was taken aback when she saw Song Mengmeng, but then smiled and explained, "Sister Anna said that the lighting is not good when eating in the room, so it's better to eat outside as usual, where it's bright and airy."
Yao Anna followed behind her, carrying two armchairs that are common in local homes. She smiled and explained, "Yes, yes, I wasn't used to it at first either, but after eating here twice, I really think that this kind of pastoral scenery is the greatest enjoyment!"
Look, sitting here eating, you can see the smoke rising from the village not far away, and the terraced fields layer upon layer below the mountain, how wonderful!
Isn't it a hundred times more natural than those man-made landscapes?!
Song Mengmeng nodded. To be honest, she had an instinctive fondness for this natural and unadorned environment.
Just as Yao Anna had mentioned before, Grandma Song's cooking was indeed quite good. Yao Anna didn't put on any airs. Since it was just Grandma Song and her granddaughter at home, she would invite them to join her for meals. Now, with Song Mengmeng and the others joining them, the group sat around the table, eating and chatting, making it quite lively.
During the meal, the conversation inadvertently drifted to local customs and traditions, and the legend of the mountain god naturally came up.
An elderly woman like Grandma Song, who has lived in these mountains for most of her life, naturally has more authority to speak on this matter.
Like the village chief, she didn't shy away from these kinds of legends, and frankly told Song Mengmeng and the others about those past events as if they were stories.
“Before, there was no road connecting us here. The only way to get in and out was through a few mountain trails. Those trails were difficult to walk on. You could easily slip and fall even during the day. At night, when you couldn’t see the trail, it was even more dangerous.”
You wouldn't believe how dangerous it was to walk on the mountain at night. Back then, there were no flashlights, only torches or lanterns. You had to hold the torch in one hand and grab onto tree branches or something by the roadside with the other to avoid slipping. If you slipped, you'd panic and everything would fall apart!
I don’t know when it started, but people say that there are mountain spirits in the mountains at night, and if people walk in their way, they will be pushed down the mountain by the mountain spirits!
Anyway, because of this incident, the city officials, doing good deeds, came and collected money from the people of our surrounding villages to build that mountain god temple. They said that with the mountain god there, they could control those mountain demons and prevent them from coming out to bully people recklessly.
As Grandma Song spoke, she pointed to a mountain on the left and introduced it to Song Mengmeng and the others.
At this point, Grandma Song couldn't help but shake her head slightly and chuckle, "Actually, my grandma laughed about this back then, saying that it wasn't some mountain god at all, but just an excuse for the city gentlemen to ask for money!"
Later, after the road was built, the town started developing folk tourism, and that saying came back to them!
A couple of years ago, reporters would occasionally come to our village to gather information. The town officials said it was to collect legends and such, but my daughter, Fu'er, would laugh and say it was all for tourism promotion, nothing really mystical.
Grandma Song's attitude was worlds apart from the village chief's.
As for why...
After leaving the Song family, Yao Anna whispered to Song Mengmeng that Grandma Song wasn't entirely a local; she had fled the war early on and hid there.
I heard that she used to be a well-educated middle school student. Later, she married the old man of the Song family. The old man of the Song family was no ordinary person either. He had served in the army in his early years and was discharged after injuring his leg.
After marrying Grandma Song, the two of them lived in the village and never left.
However, this elderly couple is a rare example in the village who value education. They have worked hard to raise their two sons and one daughter, and now they all have good jobs and lives outside the village.
The original plan was to take Grandma Song to the city to enjoy a comfortable life, but Grandma Song was unwilling. She said she had to stay with Grandpa in the village and didn't want to go anywhere else.
She couldn't bear to leave her homeland, and none of her children could persuade her otherwise. Fortunately, her eldest granddaughter is now a freelance writer with flexible working hours and location, so she volunteered to come back and stay with Grandma Song to take care of her grandmother.
"So, who's telling the truth?!"
Hu Yue turned her head and glanced at the Song family's old house, which was now far behind her, and found it difficult to make a decision.
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