Chapter 41 3. Enjoy hunger

It was a great escape. H University left Henan, fled from Shangnan in the east of Shaanxi to Baoji in the west of Shaanxi, and settled in Shiyang Temple, a suburb of Baoji, and more than ten villages around it.The father led the whole family to follow him, and settled in a small village called Songjiazhuang out of breath. The school can't pay the salary, and the savings of the parents have been exhausted.In order to get into the car on the way to escape, my father gave the last decent thing left in my family, a Russian blanket, as a tribute to the driver of a military car.When he arrived in Songjiazhuang, his father announced to the whole family: the "hunger experience" began.

My father said that "hunger experience" is very important, and it is one of the necessary conditions for "Heaven sent a great mission to the people".One of the ways I approach this experience is to sing a nursery rhyme with sentimentality.It was in the "Professor's Compound" in Tantou. Uncle Guan, who had returned from overseas, taught me to sing a British children's song in English. It was about two little brothers named Tammy and Tucker. When it was time for breakfast Still lying on the bed.Get up and have breakfast, said their mother, and then announced what was to be had for breakfast, bread at all, and Keith Jem Ender Butter—cheese, jam, and butter.It was "Qi Sijie's mother Andy Butler" that made me sing endlessly. My parents were upset, so they resolutely evacuated my brother and sister to the middle school that was in charge of eating and moved from Henan. I and the seven-year-old His younger brother was sent to the Baoji shelter for difficult children.

The shelter for difficult children is located on a hillside in the western suburbs of Baoji.I don't know what relationship my father used to send us little brothers here.But I remember that when my father led his "Little Tamitaker" through the streets of Baoji, he suddenly saw a group of female students with backpacks and tanned faces.He hurried forward and asked: "Excuse me, are you classmates from Henan?" The girl said: "Yes!" The father asked again: "Are you classmates of Mrs. K?" The girl said: "No, it's K Girls' middle school!" The father asked again: "Have you ever met any of Miss K's classmates or teachers?" The girl said: "Yes!" The father asked again: "Have you met their music teacher?" The father adopted the method of gradually narrowing down The tactic of encircling the circle failed to lock the target.The girls said, "Oh, sir, we don't know who their music teacher is!" Then imitating their father, they said, "Excuse me, do you have any questions?" The girls laughed, but the father didn't , said: "I'm sorry, there is only one 'do' left, do you know where Ms. K went?" The girls said: "Sir, I really don't know, they are all scattered, and no one can care Who is it!" The father asked: "So, where are you going?" The girl said: "I don't know, we can't find the school!"

I know my father misses Aunt Wan'er, but I don't know if she was trapped in Nanyang, or fled with the school? I can no longer miss Aunt Wan'er.The shelter for refugee children accommodates hundreds of homeless children, most of whom are children from Henan who escaped the war and were separated from their families.My brother and I must learn to live like these Henan children.We can eat two meals a day.When eating, every ten children squat into a circle, and each can get a steamed bun, which is not too small, and share a bucket of thin soup that can be seen.As soon as the whistle sounded, everyone scrambled to encircle the pot of boiled radish or boiled cabbage in the center of the circle.My brother and I have a certain degree of modesty and gentlemanly demeanor. After a group of young warriors quickly eliminated the solid ingredients in the vegetable bowl, my brother and I dipped our stomachs in the salty liquid with steamed buns.But I quickly became a warrior, and I kept cheering up my brother's morale.

The most difficult thing for me to deal with is the "face worm" - the children who came here before me and my brother all called the silkworm-like and maggot-like insect corpses floating in the bowl and steamed in the steamed buns .Those floating in the bowl are easier to deal with. You can pick them out with chopsticks or blow them out with your mouth.The ones steamed in the steamed buns have to be searched carefully, one by one, one by one, and one loses the other. What is lost is the vitamin C in the vegetable bowl. Yes, as my father said, there is also a very good chlorophyll.Then a miracle happened.A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy from Henan looked at the "noodle worms" in the bowl with tender eyes and shouted: "Eat meat!" I sucked it into my stomach, and then stared at the "face worms" in my brother's bowl.My brother and I were afraid of losing our "meat meat", so we ate it with all our might, so that we ate it almost smelling like "meat porridge".

Since then, this Henan boy named Yang Suo has become my life mentor.  He first taught me how to grind a mill.I yelled and dizzy after turning a few laps in the mill road.He pondered and said that the reason why the little donkey does not feel dizzy is because the braided straw hat "obstructs the eyes".You are not a donkey, you can't wear "obscure", so try to cover your eyes with this high-end towel of mine.The towel was as black as a tablecloth, and it also had a pungent smell of rancidity and sweat.I pushed the towel away mercilessly.He said, what?Do you think it is dirty?This is a high-quality towel used by a little girl. I snatched it from the luggage rack when I was picking up the train to Baoji.It was originally white, and it was sprinkled with perfume.Do you know what is printed on the towel?I found "Good morning" from under the black dirt.He smiled strangely and said, listen, he is greeting us, it is auspicious to wear this towel!He coaxed me to put on a towel, and I hesitated to take a step in the darkness.He took off the towel again, looked up to the sky with a heartbroken look, and sighed, "That professor father of yours is trying to train you. You can't eat your corn kernels whole!" When I went to Luo Mian, I saw that I was clumsy, but I was sweating all over my head, and I felt compassion again, and said: "You are like the troubled boy sung in the play. Ordinarily, there should be a good-hearted and handsome woman to rescue you." You, but there are no girls in our asylum, so you just hold back and tell me to think of a way."

The corn was ground that day, and he asked me very solemnly: "Do you want to eat meat? It's not mealworms, it's real meat." I nodded more reservedly.He led me to sneak out of the asylum, walked along the base of the wall to the dark place, found a hole in the ground, took aim and urinated, and after a while, a dung beetle came out of the hole to escape the flood.He looked at it and said, "No, it's a male!" He kicked the dung beetle, found another hole, let me make hot urine in the same way, and another dung beetle protruded out, and he exclaimed, "Hey, it's still The professor’s baby urinates well, and when he urinates, a female comes out, with a big belly and a lot of meat!” He held the female dung beetle in his hand, led me into the ravine, picked up a bundle of firewood, and took out the shovel hidden between the rocks He propped up the head with a stone, and said, "This is our pot." He piled fine sand on the head of the shovel, lit the firewood to roast the sand, and put the dung beetle into the firewood.After a while, the shell of the dung beetle became charred, and oil protruded from its stomach.He picked up a pointed wood stalk like a fork for eating western food, he picked up a dung beetle and handed it to me, saying: "It's hit, the meat is cooked!" I didn't have the courage to accept his gift, so he just swallowed it in one gulp Going down, stirring the hot barbecue with his tongue, Wuliwulu said: "You have to learn to eat this meat. There is a very big airport in Xi'an, and the American soldiers who fly the plane just eat the barbecue with a fork .”

Yang Suo poured more firewood under the shovel head, and untied his leg tie, and golden corn kernels flowed out from his trouser legs continuously and sporadically.I asked who gave this corn?He said: "No one will give it to us. When I was grinding the corn, I turned my face away several times, untied the waistband of my trousers and scratched it, and scratched the corn in the cloth bag into my crotch." At this time, he told a story Epigram: "Remember, a man's hand is a rake, and he has to learn to make it scratch things." He buried the corn kernels in the hot sand, and after a while, there was a "crackling" sound in the sand, and fragrant corn flowers bloomed one after another .

We were full of popcorn, and with his permission, we left a bagful of popcorn for my brother.He hiccupped exaggeratedly, and began to boast about his glorious history of selling steamed sweet potatoes, then lay on his face on the hillside, and let me listen to his music at the top of his voice: "Not sweet~no noodles~no money hot ~Red~Potato~Oi~~!" The voice was melodious and loud, which caused a shocking echo in the ravine.He also wants to listen to my mouth, so I mustered up the courage and yelled after him.He praised me for my eloquence, and when he defeated the devil, he would go back to his hometown in Henan to sell sweet potatoes, and asked me if I would like to pick the train back with him.I hesitated because of my brother's involvement.He expressed regret for this, and felt that my younger brother ruined my future, otherwise, I must be doing a good job selling sweet potatoes with him!

I hooked my middle finger with him, and he said it meant to live and die together, and from now on I should respect him as a "righteous brother" and I am his "virtuous brother".However, at the juncture of my life and death with "Brother Yi", Aunt Wan'er's shadow flickered for a moment, and I was out of order, bringing an unexpected disaster to "Brother Yi". That day, Yang Suo was pulling a cart, saying that he was like a mule "driving the shaft", and tied a hemp rope to the handlebars, and asked me to act as a donkey for him, and went to the city to bring back two sacks of corn. .Passing by an alley, he saw that no one was around, so he pulled the cart into the alley and said, "Go to the entrance of the alley and watch. If you see people from our asylum coming, you should shout 'Sweet Potato Hot!'!"

When I went to the entrance of the alley to watch, I saw a banner posted in front of a large courtyard opposite: "Ms. K's exiled teachers and students report to the office." My heart moved, and I thought of Aunt Wan'er, but forgot that I was Yang Suo's sentry.I sneaked into the "report office" by accident and asked an old man in a long gown, do you know a music teacher named Wan'er, has she come to report?The old man looked through the registration book carefully and said that he couldn't find her name, and she hadn't come to report yet.I also saw that the gable inside the house was a whole blackboard with "Message Office" written on it, and there were many written notes on the wall, as well as messages written in chalk: When so-and-so comes, contact so-and-so as soon as possible, So-and-so is waiting for you there; when so-and-so comes, tell so-and-so in such-and-such place quickly to avoid suspense, and so on.I picked up a piece of chalk, climbed up on the upper stool, and wrote a message on the blackboard: "Aunt Wan: I miss you, Dad is looking for you. After you come, come to Baoji Home for Difficult Children and find me." The old man said behind my back: "Call She went to the asylum to look for you, who are you?" I solemnly wrote "Banban" and added the date.The old man said: "Baby, it's really hard for you to write such a message!" I came out of the "report office", only to remember that I was Yang Suo's sentry, and hurried into the alley, Yang Suo and the rack car had disappeared.I ran back to the asylum in one breath, but I saw Yang Suo standing upright under the screen wall, with two big bowls of corn kernels protruding under his feet.I leaned over to look at him timidly, and he gave me an angry grimace, then raised his face and glared at the sky.The younger brother said that he hid in the alley and stuffed corn into his big crotch. His "classmates" saw him and reported him to the dean.The dean undid his leg tie, and corn kernels flowed out of his trouser legs like running water. Henceforth, my golden years with popcorn were over.The asylum kept Yang Suo away from all work related to food and asked him to manage four urine buckets for two large dormitories.I felt deeply sorry for him, and explained to him that I have Aunt Wan'er, who found a "yu", and if I want to find Aunt Wan'er, she will let us eat pancakes and roll them with shredded pork.I forgot to stand guard that day just to find Aunt Wan'er.Yang Suo showed infinite fascination, but curled his lips contemptuously and said: "We are not crickets in a nest!" I soon discovered that Yang Suo could find his own food even when he was managing the urine bucket.Instead of pouring the four barrels of urine that would fill up every night into the cesspit of the asylum, he secretly handed it to a farmer who was next to the asylum, and the farmer would give him a piece of soybean cake or even Peanut cake or sesame cake is one level higher than bean cake.When I was sleeping at night, I could see him covering his head with a rug, and the sound from under the rug was like a mouse grinding its teeth.A heavy aroma permeated the darkness.But I felt ashamed in my heart, and felt that I was no longer qualified to sharpen my teeth with him.When he stuffed a sesame cake from under the blanket, I would rather immerse myself in the "hunger experience" and wrapped my blanket tightly. When my nerves could no longer stand the temper, Aunt Wan'er appeared like an angel.It was a sunny day, and the sky in Baoji was as blue and clear as if it had been washed with water.The administrator led me outside the gate, and I saw a thin, tall woman with almond-shaped eyes wide open at me.I called out "Aunt Wan'er!" and ran to her and hugged her.she cried.She knelt down and hugged me.I don't know why I always find motherhood in her, as if she were my other young mother. "I almost didn't recognize you!" she whispered in my ear, through tears, "how did your father send you to this bloody place? Oh, sorry!" She apologized to the administrator.The administrator said: "It's okay, I won't let you into this ghost place just because you brought so many delicious things, I'm afraid the children in this ghost place won't be able to stand such a stimulus!" Aunt Wan'er said: " I know, I know, let him eat something here, okay?" The administrator said, "You can even take him to a restaurant, or lead him away, it doesn't matter!" Aunt Wan'er said "Really? That's great, I really want to thank you!" After the administrator left, Aunt Wan'er asked me eagerly, "Where is Dad?" I said, "In Songjiazhuang, far away from here. It’s very close.” Aunt Wan’er asked, “Would you like to come with me?” I said, “Yes, but I still have a younger brother here.” Aunt Wan’er said, “It’s the little baby who was born seven years ago. Hurry up and call him, let's go to the restaurant!" I also took the Yang lock when I came out.Aunt Wan'er asked, who is this kid?I said he was my lock brother, and then, in the words of the administrator, he would be "stimulated" no matter where I went to eat.Aunt Wan'er laughed and said, let's go, and take your brother Suo to eat too!She stretched the three characters "eating" very long, and there was a pause after each character, like a long and happy sigh. On that day, we ate desperately and invincibly.I still remember every detail of what I ate and how I ate that day.It's not the pancake roll shredded pork that I'm longing for, but the more solid and satisfying sesame seed sandwich with five-spice sauce beef, as well as the cold noodle soup with a little mustard and the egg flower soup with cucumber slices.Aunt Wan'er didn't eat, but watched us eat silently, smiling peacefully, but kept taking out a handkerchief to wipe away tears.Brother Suo ate in a panic, choked on the mustard, and sneezed with a runny nose.But he was eating his own, and his eyes were still staring at other people's tables.When Aunt Wan'er turned her face away and wiped her tears with a handkerchief, his hands gave full play to the role of a "rake" and quickly took the remaining half of the sesame seed cake on the left table, and the other "rake" struck at the same time, Looted a chicken leg from the table on the right.When Aunt Wan'er turned her face, his spoils of war had disappeared without a trace in the pocket of his all-encompassing trousers.Only the younger brother eats in a quiet, elegant and civilized manner, extending and deepening his understanding of beef while chewing gently, just like he treats the latest unearthed cultural relics as a historian today.It was only fifty years after leaving the shelter that he confessed to Brother Nai that he had accidentally gnawed on a watermelon rind that was thrown on the ground when Brother Nai was not worried. Necessary sanitation was carried out in the ditch. After we ate three stomachs that day, Aunt Wan'er asked me in a low voice, "Do you know where to send letters to Dad?" I only know Songjiazhuang, and I can't tell you anything else.Brother Suo, who has been at a loss in front of Aunt Wan'er, finally had a chance to show his performance. He said, "You don't need to go to the post office for this matter, I will take care of it! Songjiazhuang is only one stop away from Baoji, whether it is a bus, a truck, or a car. Get on the bus and you'll be there in no time. Get off and walk north, it's easy to find. I still recognize his father, wearing 'two cakes'..." I added a note to Aunt Wan'er, the "two cakes" he said were glasses, Wan Auntie laughed.Brother Suo looked at the sun outside the window, and said: "It will be delivered in the middle of the day, and I will come back when it gets dark. I have delivered errands to the asylum. I know I have to ask his father to write you a receipt." , can’t be wrong!” Aunt Wan’er was overjoyed and said, “What a smart kid, thank you!” It was dark, and not long after Aunt Wan'er sent my brother and me back to the asylum, Yang Suo ran back with a high air, snapped his fingers, and said, "Okay, your father and your aunt have met!" He looked at me in disbelief, and said, "Don't you believe it? When I got off the train, I ran into your father waiting on the platform. Your father read the letter, and I asked him for a receipt. Your father said, no Now, I was about to get in the car to Baoji, and told me to come back by car with him. When I got out of the car, I went to find your aunt." He said in a strange voice: "What do you think of the cricket in your nest? Different from me? When I went there, your aunt bought me a ticket, and I sold the ticket before I entered the station. Your aunt also gave me the money to buy the return ticket, but when I came back, your father spent another I wasted money and gave me a replacement ticket. The crickets in my nest never buy tickets for the car, only the meat-headed crickets buy tickets!" He patted his trouser pocket again and said, "Well, I'll earn your aunt's money. The money for the two tickets will be ours, and I will share it with your brother, and the three of us will have beef with sesame seed cakes again!" Yang Suo didn't have time to fulfill his promise.What worried me the most was that I hadn’t seen my father’s arrival for two days. I began to doubt the authenticity of Yang Suo’s delivery of the letter, and asked him angrily, “Where did you send the letter? Did you use it as a toilet paper?” Butt?" He snorted contemptuously, "Since my mother gave birth to me, I have never used toilet paper at all, I use dirt. If your father doesn't come to see you, I will pay you for it!" He Suddenly shed tears and said: "My father and mother are gone, who will pay me?" He wiped his tears with his sleeve and ignored me.  I was anxiously waiting for my father and Aunt Wan'er to show up, but something extraordinary happened in the asylum.Early that morning, the administrator led us to clean up, announcing that at noon, the wives of several senior officials came to express condolences, and this day would be changed to three meals a day.At noon, we squatted into circles that seemed to be drawn with compasses.In the center of each circle, there is a large pot of steaming steaming stewed pork.Each refugee child also added a small porcelain bowl filled with warm boiled water, and was given a cod liver oil pill.The administrator instructed that when the sympathizers came to the restaurant and heard a whistle, first serve the cod liver oil pills with warm water in a porcelain bowl, and then serve the meal.The steamed buns that day were also made with "foreign noodles", and there was absolutely no "noodle worm", and they were piled up in a big basket like a hill. The lucky "Little Tami Tuckers" were all waiting for the whistle, but I squeezed the cod liver oil pill between my thumb and forefinger and rubbed it. I looked at it against the sun and found that it was translucent, unlike any pill I had ever taken. are not the same.Curiosity made me try to uncover the mysteries inside the elastic shell, but I forgot the rule that I must hear the whistle before taking it with warm water, and I remembered the unique skill of throwing cornflowers into my mouth taught by Yang Suo. , threw the cod liver oil pills high, put his mouth up with his face up, and swallowed the cod liver oil pills impartially.My performance aroused the laughter of the children.Just at this moment, the whistle sounded, and the sympathizers floated in.I have already bitten off the cod liver oil pill, and the unbearable smell made me grin my teeth and spit again and again, and the cod liver oil pill was also spat out by me.My expression must be very ridiculous, and the children's uncontrollable laughter, which they wanted to hold back, was also "choked-uh, choked-uh" very funny.My recklessness completely ruined the solemn atmosphere of greeting condolences.Just as I was shaking my head, stomping my feet and spitting, the wives of the officials walked up to me.I saw the embroidered cheongsam, the scarlet lipstick, the glittering drapes below the ears, and the eyes with circled circles and eyelashes that fluttered like butterfly wings in amazement. "Why did you spit it out?" a lady asked me. My answer is succinct: "fishy!" "Ah!" exclaimed softly, the wives of the officers, and told the superintendent of the asylum that the poor children should be taught how to take this incrustable pill, and I should be taught how to take it on the spot. Not one, but two cod liver oil pills were delivered to the wife of an official. "Open your mouth!" She squeezed the cod liver oil pill and brought it to my mouth.I noticed that her fingers were white and tender, with cardamom-colored nails. "Don't bite it, do this...follow it..." She stuck out her tongue.I stick out my tongue too.She put cod liver oil pills on my tongue.I just held the cod liver oil pill with my tongue and stuck it out of my mouth without moving. "Hold your tongue back quickly!...Okay, very good, don't bite it with your teeth." I retracted my tongue extremely carefully, waiting for the next command.The official's wife handed a small porcelain bowl to my mouth, "drink water," she tilted her head back, "send it down whole." I obediently accepted her instruction and successfully completed the all programs.she laughed.Her smile is very moving, as if it relieved an imminent suffering for the world. "It will be like this from now on..." She raised her neck again, "Send it like this, understand?" I bowed gratefully and said, "Thank you!" The officials' wives exclaimed in unison: "Ah, what a polite child!" Unfortunately, I have since become the object of ridicule by all the children in the asylum.From time to time, a child would run over, bow respectfully to me for no reason, and wink and say, "Thank you!" Someone else would pick up a small stone from the ground, pinch their black fingers into the shape of an orchid, delicately Said to me in a delicate voice: "Open your mouth, all in one..." I suddenly realized that I was not "a cricket in the same nest" as all the difficult children.Brother Suo also gave me a hard shoulder, and said angrily: "You thank her! What kind of fish oil will she feed you every day? If she wants to do good deeds sincerely, why don't you give me her golden potion? " Just when my brain was about to burst and my spirit was about to collapse, my father and Aunt Wan'er came to the asylum together and picked up my brother and me.I wrongly blamed Yang Suo and felt sorry for him.When I left the asylum, I wanted to say goodbye to him, and even wanted to discuss with him the possibility of asking him to temporarily give up his beautiful yearning to go home and sell sweet potatoes, and go to Songjiazhuang with me, but I couldn’t find him everywhere. .I think he may have taken the train to Xi'an.The asylum had discovered his secret of exchanging urine for oil cakes, and removed his errands and kept him away from the urine bucket.He said, it doesn't matter, they can't starve me.There is an aircraft shooting range in Xi'an. When an aircraft shoots a target, bullet rings are dropped from the sky to the ground, and a large area is dropped.As long as you protect your head with a wicker bucket, the plane hits a target, and you can get in to pick up bullet rings, and a bullet ring can be exchanged for a biscuit.Maybe he went to Xi'an to pick up biscuits.