Chapter 90
Lin Yao bit down several times as if to vent her anger, and only let go after someone apologized repeatedly.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Deputy Director Gu wore a black pullover sweater, and his whole body was as tall as the pine and bamboo in the yard, covering up the few small tooth marks on his chin, and went to work in a decent manner.
Lin Yao slept until more than eight o'clock, got up, washed her face and brushed her teeth, ate a bowl of hot millet porridge, a white and plump boiled egg, moved a small stool and sat in front of the window to take off her labor insurance gloves.
Earlier, she took advantage of no one at home to stroll around the space, and when she was sorting out supplies, she found a container of labor insurance gloves from the 1950s and 1960s.
These labor insurance gloves were pressed in the corner, and Lin Yao was lazy and didn't find them until now.
There were at least several thousand pairs of labor insurance gloves in that container, and they were just gathering dust. Zhang Cuilan was muttering that her son's sweater and trousers were too short, so she wanted to tear apart her sweater and quilt it for him.
Lin Yao said that she had some woolen coupons, so she took over the job.
In fact, she was completely empty-handed. She really had no coupons, but she had countless labor insurance gloves. They were not used at home, but they were treasures to Lin Yi.
Lin Yao took out a dozen pairs of woolen gloves, untied them and tied them into balls. While untiing them, she was thinking about whether she could find a chance to send some more to her eldest brother. If they were tied into six or seven bundles, she could weave a new sweater and new woolen trousers.
Lin Yao worked slowly, and she only tied two balls of woolen yarn after untiing them for a whole morning.
Gu Doudou asked his grandmother to carry him to the big house. Zhang Cuilan fed the little fat boy a bowl of egg custard and coaxed him to sleep. She looked at the sky and realized it was time to cook lunch.
After a short rest, Zhang Cuilan scooped a ladle of cold water and poured it into the basin. Then she added some chopped cabbage leaves and wheat bran to feed the rabbits.
There had been a few small snowflakes in the past few days. Gu Mancang rubbed his hands, picked up a broom and started to clean the yard. Snow fell in the bamboo forest in front of the house. When the wind blew outside, the snow flew all over the yard. If it fell on the ground and was not swept up in time, it would be bad if it froze and stumbled in the morning.
After Gu Mancang finished sweeping the yard, he went out to take out the trash. After taking out the trash, he happened to meet Uncle Zhang, who was wearing a cotton jacket and a slanting-collared gown like a mender on top of a mender, carrying a basket of cabbages and walking toward the compound.
Gu Mancang hurriedly welcomed Uncle Zhang home.
It was a cold day, and Uncle Zhang hurried along the way. The cold wind blew into his neck, and his legs and feet were frozen and numb.
Zhang Cuilan made an enamel pot of ginger sugar water and asked Uncle Zhang to drink it to drive away the cold.
When Uncle Zhang entered the old customer's house, he first warmed his hands around the stove, then sat down with a big knife and a golden horse, gulping down half a pot of spicy and sweet syrup from his throat to his stomach, and burped comfortably.
Zhang Cuilan complained, "It's so cold, why don't
you wait until it's warmer before going to the city?" Uncle Zhang grinned, "It's okay, I've been used to it for so many years. My mother was worried about the lack of vegetables at home, so she asked me to send a basket."
He lifted the sack on the bamboo basket and showed it to his sister.
There were potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbages grown by himself, a bundle of tender green onions, a basket of sun-dried mountain mushrooms, black fungus, chestnuts and so on.
Zhang's second uncle said, "Our Pingzi has also joined the factory, working in the provincial power supply plant."
Zhang Ping is the second child of Zhang's eldest uncle. This child is good at studying. He studied in a technical secondary school in the provincial capital and was assigned to the provincial power supply plant after graduation.
Zhang Cuilan's eyes lit up.
"Why, second brother Pingzi is an electrician?"
"Not an electrician, but a purchaser in the purchasing department of the power supply plant."
Zhang Cuilan's eyes lit up even more, "Oh, our Pingzi has become an official!"
"Not really, just a small purchaser, not as good as Doudou's father who is the deputy director."
"Anyway, this is a good thing, we have to celebrate, second brother, wait for me to kill a rabbit, and we will have a good meal."
"Hey, where is Doudou, let me hug the little guy."
After not seeing him for a while, Zhang's second uncle really missed the fat boy.
"He's asleep in the house. Let's talk when he wakes up."
"Where's Doudou's father?"
"He went to work. The Public Security Bureau is busy during the New Year."
The two chatted animatedly in the house. Lin Yao refilled Zhang's tea from time to time. Hearing Zhang's second uncle mention Gu Shi'anlai, he was very amused.
Since the birth of the fat boy, the family status of Deputy Director Gu has been upgraded to a lower level, directly from Anzi to Doudou's father.
Gu Mancang opened a bottle of Fenjiu hidden in the five-piece cabinet, and ate it with a plate of peanuts fried by his daughter-in-law, and chatted in the house.
Zhang Cuilan happily killed a rabbit, peeled it, and stewed it. She also brought a basket of potatoes, prepared to peel and shred them, wash them, add salted pork belly, and roll potato and meat cakes to eat. Lin Yao went to the kitchen to pick up three or four salted duck eggs from the small pot, which could be cut and used as a dish later.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were busy in the kitchen, and Gu Shidong, who was reading in the house, ran in crying.
"Mom, sister-in-law, Doudou has pooped again and it stinks!"
Lin Yao: "......."
The little rabbit said something unlucky on New Year's Day. Zhang Cuilan didn't do anything, so Lin Yao had to wipe her hands and go to change Gu Doudou's diaper and wipe his butt.
Just after taking care of the little fat boy, Gu Shidong ran in again.
"Sister-in-law, my brother is back. Let him change Doudou's diaper."
Lin Yao was speechless for a while. She had already changed the diaper of the little fat boy when this guy came in to report the news.
Seeing Doudou kicking his fat legs happily, Gu Shidong knew that he was too late. He shook his head in embarrassment and ran away.
Lin Yao went out of the yard to wash her hands. Gu Shian had already prepared warm water, towels and soap for her.
Lin Yao didn't look good to someone these days.
Zhang Cuilan saw that something was wrong and asked about it privately. Lin Yao was aggrieved and mentioned that Gu Shian wanted a second child.
The old mother scolded him again and transferred her anger to Gu Mancang.
These bastards are just like that. They want a concubine after having a son. They only care about their own happiness and don't care about their wife's health!
Yaoyao just gave birth to Doudou less than a year ago, and she wants a concubine again!
Why don't you go to heaven, you bastard? !
Deputy Director Gu was tongue-tied and couldn't explain clearly. He really didn't mean that.
How many children to have in the family is up to Yaoyao herself.
He is just that, just an excuse to kiss Lin Yao and hold her hand.
"......."
*
At noon, a pot of hot braised rabbit meat was put on the pot. The rolls were made of Erhe flour, with shredded rabbit meat, pork belly, and some homemade soybean sauce. They were cut into thin slices and sandwiched with salty duck eggs. The fragrance was so delicious that Uncle Zhang's tongue was about to melt. It
was New Year's Day, and every household in the compound had good food.
The neighbors smelled the aroma of meat in the yard, but they pretended nothing happened.
Only Liu Ercui in the front yard looked at the old Gu family through the small door.
When she met Lin Yao, she was still shameless and asked about it.
"Hey, what do you have for lunch that smells so good?"
Lin Yao said indifferently, "Nothing, just some home-cooked dishes."
But Liu Ercui didn't believe it. She smelled meat. Besides, since the old customer had guests, he had to have a bowl of meat.
Speaking of meat, Liu Ercui began to drool like crazy.
Since she lost her job as the chef in the canteen of Zheng Dacheng Steel Rolling Plant, Liu Ercui's life has fallen into a slump. This year during the Spring Festival, she didn't have money to buy cloth to make a new cotton jacket. The half-new one she was wearing was made two years ago. The cotton inside was clumps. Although she was wearing leather shoes on her feet, the socks inside exposed her big toe! The more
she lived in poverty, the more desperate Liu Ercui was to eat meat.
She forced a smile and asked, "Yaoyao, you have guests, do you need help?"
The meaning was clear: I'll help your family, and you'll give me meat.
How shameless.
Lin Yao didn't even turn her head, and went straight back to the kitchen as if she didn't hear anything.
Liu Ercui's face twitched, and she went home cursing.
After eating and drinking, Uncle Zhang picked up his empty shoulder pole and went back to the countryside. In fact, this time he came to the county, in addition to delivering vegetables to the old Gu family to announce the good news, he also had to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some window paper to paste on the windows.
In the mountains in winter, there was a lot of wind and snow, and the window paper of Old Zhang's family was torn and frozen. When he slept in the house at night, he could hear the sobbing in his ears like a ghost crying at night.
Gu Shian rushed to work and sent Zhang Ershu to the North City Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Gu Chunmei worked there, and it was more convenient for Zhang Ershu to find his niece when he wanted to buy something.
The New Year passed in a flash, and the sunny March arrived, and Yunshui County was covered with green.
Recently, no one knew what was going on. Xu Tangyuan, who had just turned one year old, started crying at night and kept crying and making noises until the second half of the night. The whole family was worried and couldn't sleep.
Gu Chunmei and her husband took the child to see a doctor.
The doctor didn't find any problems, but said that it might be a shock, and asked the parents to take good care of the child.
The couple had no choice but to take the child home, but the child still cried loudly at night.
Gu Chunmei was exhausted by her son's noise, so she went back to her parents' home to ask her family for advice.
Zhang Cuilan slapped her thigh.
"Did our Tangyuan lose his soul?"
Losing his soul is a local dialect in Yunshui County, which means that after a child is frightened, one of his three souls and seven spirits is washed away.
Zhang Cuilan hurriedly found an old lady in the county to call back the soul of her grandson. That night, she posted a note on the door of Xu's house and wrote "Heaven and earth, there is a night-crying child in my family. If you pass by, recite this three times, you will sleep well until dawn."
As a result, Xu Tangyuan really slept soundly that night and slept well until dawn.
In response, Gu Shian gave a scientific explanation: "The child is startled and cries at night, and needs to be calmed down."
Lin Yao was confused, but she didn't mind. She called Deputy Director Gu to get her footbath water.
"..."
In a blink of an eye, Gu Doudou is almost ten months old. Two small front teeth have grown in his mouth. The lower teeth are still there, but according to Zhang Cuilan's experience in raising children, the lower teeth are also about to grow. The little guy has reached
the age of babbling, and can already stand for a while by himself with the help of a chair. He can also imitate the movements of the adults at home, learn to wave his hands with his mother, and babbled to his father for food.
Lin Yao trained the little boy to speak, and taught the little fat boy to call mommy. Gu Doudou spitted, "Ah, Mama!"
He taught him to call daddy, and the little fat boy looked innocent. "Daddy
!"
"No, it's mommy."
"Mama!"
"Yaoyao, don't be angry, come on, son, call daddy!"
"Daddy!"
Lin Yao and Gu Shi'an stood there like wooden chickens.
Gu Chunmei, who was standing next to him, held her belly and laughed so hard that tears flew out. Xu Xiangqian
was so happy that he fell backwards and teased Doudou to call him uncle. Unexpectedly, the little fat boy was eloquent and called "tofu."
This also made Big Head Brother very happy, and he lifted the little fat boy up high. Gu Doudou laughed excitedly and kicked his fat legs and shouted.
At the same time, Lin Daguo and Li Aifeng dressed up and went to the pigeon market to sell two small yellow croakers, intending to use the money to find a wife for Lin Hongwu and solve the major event in his life.
Speaking of the two small yellow croakers that Li Aifeng "brought" from the old landlord's house, it was in 1949 when the village divided the land, the peasants became masters, and took the old landlord to criticize and robbed the old landlord's house.
When Li Aifeng went there, all the good furniture in the old landlord's house was robbed, even the pots and pans in the kitchen and the utility room were left. She moved the old landlord's big sauce jar and cloisonné urine jar away, which were also valuable and good things in the eyes of the poor people!
As a result, Li Aifeng found the two small yellow croakers in the cloisonné urine pot. She guessed that the old landlord's family was in trouble at that time, and these might be hidden in the urine pot by the old landlord, waiting to be used as a trap when he ran away.
Li Aifeng hit the jackpot by accident, and the two small yellow croakers hit her hand.
Li Aifeng also had her own little tricks. She secretly dug two mud bricks on the wall at the head of the kang and hid the small yellow croakers inside.
She hid them for more than ten years.
The two small yellow croakers were sold for 155 yuan. Li Aifeng held a thick stack of big balls, as if she was worth 2.58 million yuan, and crossed her legs at home to discuss with Lin Daguo what kind of daughter-in-law to marry for his son.
Lin Daguo had just finished eating a pig's tail and was now picking his teeth with a broomstick.
"What else can it be? The daughter-in-law of our Lin family must be virtuous, work in the fields, cook at home, and serve us old couple comfortably." "She must
have a big butt, because a big butt can give birth to grandchildren."
"Her family can't be too poor, otherwise it won't be a good match with our family, and a bunch of poor relatives will come to our house to ask for money."
Lin Hongwu did not forget to add, "I don't want an ugly one, and I don't want one with too dark skin. I'm so suave, I have to choose a good-looking girl."
Li Aifeng's face was full of pride.
"Yes, yes, my Hongwu has such an outstanding child, so many girls are eager to marry him, we have to choose carefully."
Speaking of this, Lin Daguo suddenly thought of a good candidate, "In Lao Wangzhuang next door, Wang Shanpao has a young concubine named Honghua who is about eighteen or nineteen years old, and she is really pretty. Wang Shanpao, this useless old bastard, gave birth to five concubines before he had a son. This son of his is a treasure, the only child in three generations. The old bastard said that he would marry off several concubines and give money to his younger son to marry a wife."
Li Aifeng really disliked such a family.
"This family is extremely poor. Don't marry someone from a petty family who can't support the family."
Lin Hongwu was also somewhat unhappy. The wife of Wang Shanpao's family was a hot-tempered one. If her daughter-in-law took after her mother, what would happen?
Li Aifeng looked disdainful.
"How dare she! When she comes to our Lin family, she must listen to our Lin family's discipline. The daughters-in-law in the village are all the same. If they are not beaten for three days, they will go up to the roof and tear down the tiles. Wait for that girl from the Wang family to come in. If she doesn't listen, she will be beaten!"
Lin Hongwu nodded indifferently.
The daughter-in-law he married back was not to be worshipped as an ancestor, but he couldn't beat her every other day. If he beat his daughter-in-law away, what would he do if he was single for the rest of his life.
Lin Daguo and his wife discussed it and went back to the house yawning. They would go to Lao Wangzhuang to inquire the next day.
Lin Daguo's feet were stinking, and he wanted to get on the kang without washing them.
Li Aifeng hurried him to wash his feet, and when no one was in the room, she put the 150 yuan in her belt into the wooden cabinet. She also put the food, bills, etc. in the wooden cabinet, and tied the key to her belt. Li Aifeng never took it off when she went to sleep. Lin Daguo had lived with her for decades, and he had never stolen anything from her.
Li Aifeng would laugh in her dreams when her beloved son was about to get married.
Just now, Lin Hongwu took five yuan from Li Aifeng and went back to sleep. His mind was full of how to spend the five yuan.
Five yuan was enough for him to go to the town to have a leisurely day. He went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a discounted gauze towel and send it to the widow Su in the town. The widow Su was someone Lin Hongwu had just hooked up with. The widow Su had a big butt and big breasts. Lin Hongwu went to the town every few days to make love with her. It was so exciting.
Lin Hongwu put the five yuan under his pillow and fell asleep humming a song.
The next day, Lin Hongwu secretly went to the town, and Li Aifeng, who was kept in the dark, changed her clothes and went to Lao Wangzhuang to inquire about Wang Shanpao's family.
Li Aifeng knocked around Lao Wangzhuang and heard the details of Wang Shanpao's family in just a few words.
Wang Shanpao is over 50 years old this year. His family has been farming for generations. There are many people in the family, five daughters and one son, six mouths to feed. Wang Shanpao and his wife rely on digging for food in the soil and working to earn work points. They are really poor.
This Wang Shanpao is also disabled. He was born in the old society. At that time, everyone in the family worked as a long-term worker for the landlord. They worked all day and night and could not take care of the children at home.
Wang Shanpao's mother tied him up in the cellar. As a result, the pigs ran out of the den and heard Wang Shanpao crying in the cellar. They ran into the cellar and gnawed off a piece of Wang Shanpao's foot.
Since then, Wang Shanpao has been limping. Among the five daughters he had, Wang Honghua was the most beautiful. Moreover, the Wang family could marry off daughters at a low price. They could take the daughters away for 20 yuan. From now on,
whether Wang Honghua lived or died had nothing to do with the Wang family.
This price made Li Aifeng very excited.
*
The Gobi Desert in Xinjiang is unusually cold this year.
In previous years, the Gobi Beach was also cold, but it warmed up in March and April. This year, in mid-March, there was still heavy snow on the Gobi Beach. The snow outside had reached the ankles. If it was not cleared, the caves where the soldiers lived would collapse
. Lin Yi wore a military coat, gloves and a hat. In the biting cold, he shoveled out the snow on the caves. The
little soldier next to him stamped his feet, "What's going on this year? Why is our Gobi Beach so cold?"
"Who knows? The weather changes every year."
"My feet were frozen at night and I couldn't sleep."
"Me too."
Lin Yi's eyelashes were frozen, and he also felt that it was too cold this year.
It has been a month since the Chinese New Year, and the temperature outside is still more than ten degrees below zero, which is indeed much colder than in previous years.
"Okay, stop talking, hurry up and shovel the snow back!"
The battalion political commissar spoke, and the little soldiers kept silent.
The soldiers of the first battalion cleaned the snow on the ground cave and opened a small path for people to walk on. When they returned to the ground cave in the middle of the night, the snow outside had finally stopped, but the soldiers were shivering with cold. The battalion
political commissar asked the kitchen team to boil a few pots of brown sugar water for everyone to drive away the cold.
Generally speaking, ginger sugar water is the best to drive away the cold.
But where can you get ginger on the Gobi Desert? Even the brown sugar for boiling brown sugar water was sent by the battalion commander's sister.
Everyone drank the boiling brown sugar water and thanked Lin Yi. Lin Yi's eyes sparkled and she was proud of her sister.
*
There were a few spring rains in March. The Chinese toon trees outside sprouted tender buds. There were several Chinese toon trees in the state-owned pig farm. Zhang Cuilan and a few old sisters picked some tender Chinese toon and brought them back. They blanched them and fried them with eggs. They were very delicious.
Gu Shian came back from work and went to the grain station to buy this month's supply of grain.
Lin Yao took the rice bag and looked at it. There was half white rice and half sorghum rice. There were a lot of small stones in the white rice these days, so you had to pick it out before you could eat it.
If you don't manage a household, you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are.
Lin Yao looked at the full rice jar and went to the vegetable yard to weed happily. This year, the first crop of vegetable seedlings were planted in the Gu family's vegetable yard. Lin Yao asked Deputy Director Gu to buy a few bags of watermelon seeds. He planned to plant a few watermelon seedlings near the wall, apply fertilizer and water, and see if watermelons could grow.
If you can grow watermelon, it will be convenient for your family to eat watermelon in summer.
In the morning, Gu Shi'an washed and dried the little fat boy's diaper, and now he was loosening the ground in the vegetable garden with a hoe.
Lin Yao brought a plate of home-made sugar cakes, leaned over and handed a piece to Gu Shi'an.
"Does it taste good?"
Gu Shi'an took a big bite and smiled slightly. "It's delicious."
"Not a lot of sugar in it?"
"The taste is just right."
Lin Yao was relieved now, twisting a piece of white sugar cake and stuffing it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging, this white sugar cake also had added sugar in it. Ordering milk, it tastes faintly milky and not as sweet as the ones sold outside, which is just right for Gu Doudou.
After finishing the land, Gu Shi An and then went to pick up manure to water the vegetable fields. In the countryside, it is very common to use manure to water the vegetable fields. It is better to use manure to water the fields than to use chemical fertilizers, but the smell is too strong. The smell would not go away for several days.
Just as Lin Yao was about to hide in the house, Xu Xiangqian came hurriedly to the compound and shouted as soon as he entered the door.
"Old Gu, what are you doing? Stop it, something happened in the county!"
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