Chapter 8 New Year's Escape

The family crisis has never stopped, and the national crisis has arisen again. Twenty-six years ago, on the eve of "August 13", I rushed from Hangzhou to Fuzhou to teach.There was no smell of gunpowder, and no cannon blast. It was not so much fleeing as it was making a living.Because I have been living off manuscript fees for a year now, and the Anti-Japanese War has flourished, it is difficult for me to continue writing manuscripts as a career.Therefore, the school was restricted to move inward, and went back to Yong'an along the Minjiang River; it was called going deep into the countryside.The mountains are high and the water is urgent, so it is necessary to play, and I feel vaguely adventurous.With the Confucian Temple as the school, it is antique.Although it is about to be done, it can still be done.Building a temporary provincial capital, Yong'an became the target of enemy bombing.The school building was shot seven times in a row, and the school moved to a mountain village twenty miles away from the city.Running the mountain road with a child in my arms, climbing up and down one slope after another; getting sweaty, thirsty, hungry, and exhausted, this is really like fleeing.The temporary school building is a ancestral hall; there are no stools on the planks, and they sleep on the ground at night, which is really like a refugee.But from the perspective of ordinary locals, what we eat can be said to be celebrating Chinese New Year every day.They mix sweet potato shreds with rice, and the main meal is water spinach.We eat white rice; one yuan weighs six catties of pork, sixty yuan a month's national disaster salary, so we can buy it every day; two yuan treats can eat whole chickens and ducks.

Living as a refugee, some people are envious; this is not only dumbfounding, but also deeply moved.Many compatriots living in Yong'an Mountain Township have been living such a life, with a burden of more than 100 catties, walking a hundred miles a day on the rugged mountain road, and eating only rice mixed with shredded sweet potatoes and some water spinach And so on, it's no wonder that his face probably looks disheveled.However, as soon as the end of the lunar calendar comes, worshiping the gods and ancestors becomes lively; earnestly and vigorously, the Chinese New Year is very decent.Yong'an Mountain Township, where pots are still called Ding, is said to be like Tiantai in Zhejiang and Rongxian in Sichuan, and many old sayings are still preserved.It seems that the human relationship is relatively simple and honest. Although we are treated as Chinese New Year every day, they also sympathize with us as refugees and respect us as teachers. "Sir", so earnestly, it seems that he still has the concept of "heaven, earth, monarch, relative and teacher". It is not easy to buy fresh vegetables on the streets of rural areas, because the farmers grow their own vegetables, and there is no need to go to the street to buy fresh vegetables. They gave us vegetables to eat, and the neighbors gave us land to grow by ourselves and helped us grow.At the end of the year, the garlic and cabbage were pulled out and given to us, and the tofu grinder gave us tofu.Not only is the thing thin but the love is thick; for them, garlic tofu is not a thin thing.Living deep in the mountains, there is no need for New Year’s goods other than meat. Fried tofu with garlic can also be counted as a bowl of dishes. ──Eat it while it is hot, the taste is really good.

But still have to eat New Year's dinner.It's not the New Year's Eve in my family, and the neighbors invite me for a New Year's dinner. It's hard to disobey the kindness, and this has the nature of an obligation. If you come here with good intentions, if you don't go, you will be looked down upon; it is necessary to socialize.Neighbors, back and forth, went to this house, and had to go to that house.As usual, the New Year's dishes are six colors; the same method, the same taste.Speaking of which, the list is not bad, there are chicken, fish, pork; and seafood.But chicken, only a few small pieces, one piece for each person, as usual, the host or his representative uses chopsticks to put it into the spoon in front of everyone.The fish is probably broken, and the whole piece cannot be seen. There are not many, and it is thinly mixed in the stewed soup. The pepper and coriander are well matched, and the smell is not bad.The pork was piled up in a tall bowl, but it was dry, because the oil soup, boiled and boiled, had already been used as a tonic.It can really be called oily meat, and the mouth will not be greasy after eating.The so-called seafood is nothing more than dried seaweed razor clam soup, which is also thin. You have a spoonful, and I have a spoonful, and everyone eats it with gusto.There is a lack of iodine in the mountains, and many people suffer from thyroiditis. Vegetables are indeed precious food.For a square table, three people can sit side by side on each side; instead of a round table, twelve people can sit at each table.What can be chewed is one egg per person, which is also delivered by the host with chopsticks.

The rest of the dishes are eaten in bowls, and the second bowl is eaten after one bowl.When each bowl starts to eat, everyone holds their chopsticks and nods the chopsticks one after another. "Please, please!" The exchange gave way to put down the chopsticks first, which seemed very polite.After eating the last braised feet, pour it on the next bowl of vegetables as usual.After pouring the brine drops left on the edge of the bowl, I took the bowl to my mouth to sip it dry.The so-called bowls are actually made of square wooden plates with four corners, with a big mouth and a small bottom, like Kuixingdou.The sharp corners are neatly pocketed.Every time I see it, I always feel the ingenuity of ancient carpentry.Whether it is a wooden plate or an earthenware bowl, it is always bare when the banquet is over; if there is something left, it is a dumpling.After the banquet, you will not be hungry, and it depends on the dumplings.There are no glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in pounded cakes here, and they are made a lot on the same day; before eating, they are used as snacks, splashed with a little sugar water or salt water, and eaten as much as possible in a wooden barrel.After drinking the wine, they put out two big bowls with pork.Use glutinous rice dumplings instead of rice mixed with shredded sweet potatoes, which counts as Chinese New Year.After eating this kind of New Year's meal, I understand what it means to say that we celebrate the New Year every day.I like to eat dumplings; it doesn’t have to be Chinese New Year, but it’s usually used for dinners, even larger ones.But if you are invited to eat dumplings, you must guard against the "red mushroom pass".Yong'an produces shiitake mushrooms, and also has a lot of red mushrooms.Locals like to use red mushrooms, especially during Chinese New Year.The color of red blood is very beautiful; but I am afraid of being poisoned, and I can't taste the taste.

If I don’t eat, I will be asked “Why are you so polite?” After eating, I have to pour the stewed feet on the second bowl of food, which is very embarrassing to me. Originally published in Issue 170 on February 1, 1949