Chapter 7 Chapter Four

My aunt has long since reached the age of marriage.But she is a public official who gets paid and eats commercial food, and she has such a glorious family background. No one in the village dares to think about it.I was already five years old at that time, and I often heard my grandma come over and discuss my aunt's marriage with my grandma.The grandma said worriedly: "Her aunt, tell me, Xin is already twenty-two years old, and those born in the same year as her have already had two babies, but why doesn't she even come to propose marriage?"My grandma said: Sister-in-law, what are you in a hurry for?Someone like Xin might marry into the palace and become a queen!At that time, you will become the old mother-in-law of the emperor, and we will also become relatives of the emperor, and we will definitely follow along!The eldest grandma said: Hu Lala!

The emperor was revolutionized a long time ago, and now it is the People's Republic, with the chairman in charge.My grandma said: Since the chairman is in charge, let's marry the chairman with our hearts.The grandma said angrily: Your body has entered the new era, but your mind is still before liberation. My grandma said: I am different from you. I have never left our Heping Village in my life. You have been to the Liberated Area and Pingdu City. The grandma said: Don't mention Pingdu City to me, it makes my scalp numb when I mention Pingdu City!I was captured by the Japanese devils to suffer, not to enjoy the blessings! ——The two old sisters-in-law started arguing while talking.But the first day the grandma left angrily, as if she would never see my grandma again, and the next day, she came again.Whenever I saw the two of them discussing my aunt's marriage together, my mother would secretly laugh.

I remember one evening, when our cow gave birth to a calf, I didn’t know whether the cow was following my mother’s example or the calf was following me.The old cow mooed and seemed to be in great pain.My grandfather, my father, and the others were all very anxious, rubbing their hands, stomping their feet, and circling around, unable to do anything.Cows are the lifeblood of farmers, not to mention that the production team put the cows in our house to raise them. If they were going to die, that would be terrible.My mother whispered to my sister: Man, I heard your aunt came back.Before my mother could finish speaking, my sister ran away.Father rolled his eyes at mother, saying that you are fooling around, she is delivering babies!My mother said: Humans and animals are the same.

My aunt came with my sister. My aunt lost her temper as soon as she entered the door, saying, are you trying to exhaust me to death?Delivering babies is enough for me, you want me to take care of cows! The mother smiled and said: Sister, who made you our own family?If I don't look for you, who can I look for?People say that you are the reincarnation of Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva saves all living beings, although cattle are animals, they are also life, can you see death without saving them? My aunt said, sister-in-law, it's a good thing you can't read. If you can read two baskets of characters, how can Heping Village accommodate you!

My mother said that even if I could read Baluokang characters, I couldn’t compare to my sister’s one toe. Although the aunt's face was still full of anger, she had obviously calmed down.At this time, it was getting dark, and my mother lit all the lamps in the house, picked up the big lamp plants, and carried them to the cowshed. When the cow saw her aunt, she bent her front legs and knelt down.Seeing the cow kneeling down, my aunt burst into tears. Our tears also flowed down. The aunt checked the body of the cow, and said half sympathetically and half jokingly: Another one kicked first.

My aunt threw us into the yard, fearing that we would be irritated by watching it.We heard the aunt ordering loudly, and we imagined the scene of mother and father helping the cow to give birth under the command of the aunt.That night was the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, when the moon was in the southeast, when the sky and the earth were bright and clear, my aunt shouted: "Okay, I'm born!" We cheered and rushed into the mill, and saw behind the cow, there was a little guy covered in slime.The father said excitedly: "Okay, it's a heifer!" The aunt said angrily: "It's really strange. When a woman gives birth to a girl, the man will slump; when a cow gives birth to a heifer, the man will grin happily!"

The father said: The heifer can breed calves when it grows up! My aunt said: Where are people?Can't a little girl grow up and have a baby? Father said: That's not the same. My aunt said: What's the difference! Seeing that my aunt was in a hurry, my father stopped arguing with her. The cow turned her head and licked the slime off her calf.There seems to be a panacea on its tongue, wherever it licks, it will gain strength.Everyone looked at this scene with great emotion.I peeked out and saw that my aunt's mouth was half open, and her eyes were very loving, as if the old cow's tongue had licked her body, or her tongue had licked the calf's body.When the cow's tongue almost licked the calf's body, the calf stood up tremblingly.

We scrambled to find a washbasin, pour water, find soap, get towels, and let my aunt wash her hands. Grandma sat in front of the stove, pulling the bellows to light the fire, while mother stood in front of the kang, rolling out noodles. After washing her hands, my aunt said, "I'm starving to death!"I'm going to have dinner at your house tonight. Mother said: Isn't this your home? Grandma said: Yes, it has been a few years since I stopped touching the spoon in the same pot. At this time, the eldest grandma was outside the courtyard wall of my house, calling my aunt to go back for dinner.My aunt said, I can't work for their family for nothing, I want to eat here.The grandma said: Your aunt is in a hurry. If you eat a bowl of noodles from her, she will remember it for a lifetime.My grandma ran to the bottom of the wall with a fire stick and said: If you are hungry, come over and have a bowl, or go back.Grandma said: I don't want to eat your food.

After the noodles were cooked, my mother filled a large bowl and asked my sister to send it to the eldest grandma.Many years later, I found out that my sister ran in a hurry and fell a dog's shit. The bowl of noodles was spilled and the bowl was broken.In order to prevent my sister from being scolded when she came back, the grandma found a bowl from her cupboard and asked her to bring it back. My aunt is an extremely talkative person, and we all like to listen to her talk.After eating the noodles, she leaned her back against the wall, sat sideways on the edge of our kang, and opened up her chatterbox.She walked through hundreds of doors, met all kinds of people, and heard many anecdotes, and she did not hesitate to add oil and vinegar when she recounted them, which made her conversations as fascinating as storytelling.

In the early 1980s, when we saw Liu Lanfang's storytelling series on TV, my mother said: Isn't this your aunt?If she didn't become a doctor, Pingshu is also a good mouth! The conversation that night began when she was fighting wits with the Japanese commander Sugitani in Pingdu City.I was only seven years old at that time, and my aunt took a look at me and said that I was about the same age as Paopao, so I followed your eldest grandma and your old grandma to Pingdu City. When they got there, they were locked in a dark room, with two big wolf dogs watching at the door.Those big wolf dogs usually eat human flesh, and stick out their tongues when they see children.Your eldest grandma and your old grandma cried all night. I didn't cry, but fell asleep and slept until dawn.We were locked up in a dark room for an unknown number of days and nights, and then we were moved to a separate small courtyard. There was a lilac tree in the courtyard. The fragrance made me dizzy.A country gentleman in a long robe and top hat came and said that Commander Sugitani wanted to invite us to a banquet.Your old grandma and your great grandma only know how to cry and dare not go.The squire said to me: "Little girl, please advise your grandmother and mother not to be afraid. Commander Sugitani has no intention of harming you, but just wants to make friends with Mr. Wanliufu."

I said: Grandma, mother, don't cry, what's the use of crying?Can crying produce wings?Can crying bring down the Great Wall? The squire clapped his hands and said: Well said!The little girl is so knowledgeable, she must be an extraordinary person when she grows up.Under my persuasion, your old grandma and your eldest grandma stopped crying.We followed the squire into a limousine pulled by black mules, and we made countless turns.Entering a tall courtyard, there are double posts at the door, with Huangpizi on the left and Japanese soldiers on the right.The courtyard was very deep, and when entering through the gate, one courtyard surrounded another courtyard, as if it would never end.Finally, you enter a large flower hall. The doors, windows and partitions are all carved, and the grand master's chairs are all sandalwood.Commander Sugitani was wearing a kimono, holding a folding fan in his hand, shaking it unhurriedly, he looked like a man of culture.After saying something about Zheye, he greeted us to the table, and a big round table was filled with delicacies from mountains and seas.Your grandmas and grandmas dare not move their chopsticks, I don't care about that, just eat this shit!I couldn't use the chopsticks very well, so I simply used the "skin strainer" and stuffed them into my mouth.Sugitani held the wine glass and watched me eat with a smile.When I was full, I wiped my hands on the tablecloth, and my sleepiness came up.I heard Sugitani ask me: Little girl, can you let your father come here?I opened my eyes and said: Not good.Sugitani asked: Why not? I said: My father is Balu, you are Japan, Balu is fighting Japan, are you not afraid that my father will beat you? Having said that, my aunt rolled up her sleeves and looked at her watch.At that time, there were no more than ten watches in Gaomi County, and my aunt actually wore a watch.Wow!My elder brother exclaimed, he was the only one in our family who had ever seen a watch.He was studying in No. 1 Middle School at the time, and their Russian teacher, who had returned from studying in the Soviet Union, was wearing a watch.After my elder brother finished wowing, he shouted: Watch! My sister and I also shouted: watch! The aunt put down her sleeves pretending to be disapproving, and said, "Isn't it just a watch?"What are you bluffing about?Her deliberate understatement heightens our interest.First, the eldest brother tried to say: "Auntie, I just looked at our teacher Ji's watch from a distance... Can you let me see..." We followed the elder brother and said: "Auntie, let us have a look!" My aunt smiled and said: You little fellows, you are really a scrounger, what's so interesting about a broken watch!Although she said so, she still took off the watch and handed it to my elder brother. The mother reminded loudly from the side: Be careful! My elder brother took the watch carefully, held it in the palm of his hand to read it, and then put it to his ear to listen.After the eldest brother finished reading, he forwarded it to his elder sister, and when his elder sister finished reading it, he forwarded it to his second elder brother.The second brother only glanced at it, and before he could put it in his ear, he was snatched back by the elder brother and returned to his aunt.I was a little out of breath and started to cry. Mother scolded me. My aunt said: trot, run farther when you grow up, worry about not wearing a watch? Just like him, still wearing a watch?I'll ink one on his wrist tomorrow.my elder brother said. A person cannot be judged by his appearance, and the sea cannot be measured. Don't look at the ugliness of a long runner, you may have a great future when you grow up!aunt said. My sister said: If he has a great future, the pig in the pen can also become a tiger! The eldest brother asked: Auntie, where is this made in China?what brand? My aunt said: Swiss Innag. Wow!My elder brother exclaimed.My second brother and sister followed suit. I said angrily: "Toad!" The mother asked: sister, how much is this thing worth? My aunt said: I don’t know, a friend gave it to me. What friend is willing to give such a valuable thing?The mother looked at the aunt and said: Is it their uncle? My aunt stood up and said, "It's almost twelve o'clock, it's time to go to bed." The mother said: Thank God, my sister is finally in the right place. Don't go out and mess around, the horoscope has not been written yet!My aunt turned around and told us: Don't go out and talk nonsense, or I will peel your skin. The next morning, my elder brother, probably feeling guilty for not letting me see my aunt's watch the night before, drew a watch on my wrist with a pen.The painting is very realistic and very beautiful.I love this "watch" very much, wash my hands to avoid water, and hide my hands when it rains. When the color fades, I borrowed my elder brother's pen to draw it, and it has been preserved on my wrist for three months.