Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

The peasant association passed a resolution: During the New Year, all villages should go to the four townships to pay New Year's greetings and give New Year's gifts to military members.Each family distributes half a pig and 40 catties of rice cakes, with red and green colored silk hanging on them, and the Yangko team takes the lead to deliver them to the door.A piece of paper was pasted on the door of each military family, which said "glorious family", and a firecracker was set off when it was pasted. If there is no pig raising in the family, it is converted into cash, and there is also money for buying firecrackers, and each family has to pay a share.A day was set for delivery, but the date has already passed, and there is still no movement from everyone.During the meeting, unanimously raised their hands in favor of this proposal. At that time, everyone knew that no one had the strength to implement it, but they all raised their hands.Now they are all watching to see what others are going to do.The director of the farmers' association and his wife—that is, the director of the Women's Federation—convened meetings separately, and went door-to-door to try to persuade them individually, but it was still ineffective.Comrade Wang had to go to every family to urge him.When he arrived at Jingen's house, he said, "Tan Jingen, you are a model worker and an activist in the village. You have to take the lead. We have to take this matter as a task and complete it. This is really a political task , It has political significance. You should know how important it is! The family members of the People’s Liberation Army, we should take care of them. Without the People’s Liberation Army, where did you get the land? The army used to harm ordinary people, but now it’s different. It's the people's own army. The army and the people are one family!"

Jin Gen still insisted that he had no money and no rice to make rice cakes. "We've been eating porridge for two months," he said. Yue Xiang heard that his tone was too short, bordering on rough, she became anxious, and hurried in to talk about their hardships and hardships in detail, speaking in a mournful tone, a long story. "Every family has its own difficulties," Comrade Wang said with a smile. "But look at the other villages—they don't necessarily live a better life than us. They are still very enthusiastic about buying annual gifts for military members, and no one is willing to lag behind. Are we less patriotic than them?" He said He raised one foot and stepped on the bench, as if preparing to have a long and comfortable talk.

But Jin Gen insisted that he had no money or rice.Comrade Wang smiled and said, "I know you are really in trouble. We are all the same, each has its own difficulties, but at least you are better than others. Your woman has been working in the city. Both of you Production, the number of people in the family is small, and the burden is light. If nothing else, just talk about food, and you eat better than others." Jin Gen couldn't help but swell his face.What Comrade Wang said was of course referring to the time when he saw them eating porridge there, and that was the day Yuexiang had just returned.Jin Gen knew that it was all his own fault, and he was the one who made a fuss that day that he had to eat, and he was caught by Comrade Wang in the end.The more he hated himself, the more he became ashamed and angry, and for a while he lost his self-control. "Comrade Wang," he yelled, "go out and ask everyone what we eat every day! Who can hide these things from anyone? - You can't even see a little rice flower in the rice soup! Forgive me, We are almost out of rice. Seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming, I feel as if my heart is fried!"

Yuexiang tried her best to stop him, not to let him continue.Comrade Wang didn't mind, and continued to debate with him with a smile on his face.Comrade Wang is very familiar with this kind of work. Even if he is standing on the ground with his head on the ground and his feet on the ground, he can still talk on and on, and he can talk for hours without looking tired. In fact, their arguments can go on indefinitely, and they will never reach a conclusion, because they have different opinions, which are equal to two parallel lines, and there will never be a point of contact.Jin Gen just complained about the poor and the poor, but Comrade Wang ignored him. He only explained the truth to him, saying that he should be responsible for the military family.

"Of course you have your difficulties, I know. But don't emphasize your difficulties too much," Comrade Wang said kindly. "Look further ahead!" "Look far ahead! We won't have anything to eat when spring begins! What will we do then? Is there a big pot of rice for us to eat?" Although Comrade Wang has infinite patience, when he mentions the "big pot of rice", his expression changes.There have always been rumors in the countryside that everyone will be forced to confiscate their grain and cook it on a public stove for everyone to eat.Farmers have always been terrified of such things as "big pot rice", but now everyone is so hungry that their fear has turned into longing, because in their imagination, this may be a form of government relief.

"You people, if you keep your eyes on your own fields and work harder to produce, it will be much better than dreaming of a big pot of rice!" Comrade Wang said sharply.The smile on his face disappeared, as if something was missing on his face, I don't know if it was a nose or an eye, it looked very strange and gave people a sense of horror. "Comrade Wang, don't listen to his nonsense," Yuexiang said anxiously. "I don't know why today. I lost my temper. It was also because I had an awkward relationship with me two days ago. I wanted to gamble and drink under the covers. I stopped him and didn't let him go. I'm still vomiting with me. "

Neither of them paid her any attention. "After the famine in spring, there will be famine in summer," Jin shouted loudly, "until autumn, we don't know where we will die!" Comrade Wang slapped the table and yelled, "Tan Jingen, your attitude is very wrong! I have been patient with you, because you were willing to work hard in the past. I think you have changed! What's going on? Did someone delay you?" Your hind legs?" Of course he meant Yuexiang.Yuexiang was no longer around at this time, she slipped quietly behind the bed, and then came out from a dark corner, holding something in her hand.Her inner struggle made her face blush, but she always smiled as she walked towards Comrade Wang step by step. "Comrade Wang, I have a little money here, which he doesn't know about. Please take it and buy us firecrackers and half a pig. He doesn't know that I have this money. That's all I have left." Comrade Wang As if he didn't hear it, he continued to slap the table and shout to Jin Gen.He made her stand by for a long time; Ginger stared at her as if wishing to kill her on the spot.

Finally, Comrade Wang turned to look at her, and said coldly, "Why didn't you say it earlier? You keep saying that you can't get a single piece of money. You always play tricks on your own government. The current government is the people's government." Your own government, when will you people wake up! You still don’t confess!" "Yes, it's my fault, Comrade Wang. He really doesn't know. It's the little money I kept from him without telling him." "Forty catties of rice cakes, hurry up and send them away—the morning after tomorrow at the latest. You have to have a good talk with him and correct his thinking. His attitude today is very bad."

Yuexiang escorted Comrade Wang out, outside the yard, and stood at the gate watching him walk into another house.She suddenly felt a pain, her hair was grabbed and pulled back.Jin Gen connected several ear scrapers, which made her eyes black.She struggled desperately, kicking and biting him silently.She didn't cry out, fearing that Comrade Wang might hear him if he didn't go far. But Jin Gen didn't care about this, and while beating, he cursed loudly, "You are rich! You are rich! I don't care about your stinky money! I was saying no, no, you will praise it there Come out, slap me face-to-face! You’re not sincerely trying to mess with me, I’ll ask you next time, I’ll see what you come up with! Kill people! Beat you to death today, I’m not raised!"

He hit so hard, even though Yuexiang tried her best to hold back, she also yelled out, and Boss Tan came over to persuade her.Aunt Tan is also here.Since she quarreled with Yuexiang last time and was beaten up by the old man, she hasn't talked to Yuexiang these days.But she also ran over to try to persuade the fight today, because she has always been a warm-hearted person, no matter what happens to someone's family, she will always be there.And it was a pleasant thing, to see an enemy humiliated, humiliated as publicly as he had been humiliated that day. "Okay, okay, Jin Gen!" Mr. Tan said repeatedly. "It's easy to talk! A gentleman uses his mouth, but a villain uses his hands."

"Good men don't fight with women! Come on, come on, Jin Gen! Don't let Comrade Wang hear you!" Mrs. Tan's last words were a bit of a slip of the tongue, which was equivalent to adding fuel to the fire.Maybe she meant it. "Don't scare me with Comrade Wang!" Jin Gen began to punch and kick more and more. "I must beat her to death today! Let her report to the Women's Association! I'm not afraid!" The old couple managed to pull them away.Jin Gen walked out of the gate angrily. "This golden root just has a bad temper," said Aunt Tan. "If you get angry elsewhere, you shouldn't take it out on your wife." Yuexiang didn't say a word, she sat on the ground with her disheveled head, sobbing and crying, a trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.Aunt Tan helped her into the room, and she fell face down on the bed and burst into tears. Aunt Tan also sat down on the edge of the bed. "It's common for couples to fight, and you can't be serious with him. Husband and wife don't have feuds." Then she leaned down and whispered in Yuexiang's ear, "It's not about your family either. We suffer even more than you. Our pig was given to them. We couldn’t get the money out, so we asked relatives to borrow it. Doesn’t your wife have a girl married in the town?—Damn, she knows everything! Now she I went to the town to find her sister. If I can't borrow money, I don't know what to do." She sighed and bent down.He lifted the corner of his clothes to wipe his eyes. "Ah! It's not easy, today won't make it past tomorrow!" Yuexiang just lay on the bed, crying so much that her shoulders shrugged.She was crying like hell, as if she had been gagged with dirt and buried alive at the bottom of a mountain, because Kim Root didn't understand her. The next day they got up at dawn to grind rice flour to make rice cakes.The ancient stone mill made a "cuckoo, cluck" sound, slowly and clumsily, almost painfully.That was the sound of the earth turning on its axis... the passing of ages. Grinding rice noodles and spring rice cakes, I have been busy all day.In the evening, they brought a table out into the yard, and a candle was lit in the center of the wooden table, and everyone stood around the table.With both hands, Jin Gen was wrestling with a big hot white ball, about the size of a large watermelon. He bent over and rolled the ball around very fast. With a strange smile on his lips, he was concentrating on it. On that, it's as if what he's doing is one.The most arduous masonry, with a mysterious meaning - female snail refining stone, or carving of primitive people's worship of gods. He fiddled with the big hot rock with his heart, and from time to time he would break off a small piece and throw it to the moon fragrance below.Yuexiang twisted those small pieces into long strips one by one, and put them into the wooden model.He was very calm, put it in and then pressed it twice, carefully smoothed the edge, and looked at it for a while, then turned it over, slapped it on the table, and poured out the rice cake. It is printed with embossed patterns of plum blossoms and orchids, and there is an old tin can on the table, which contains a can of rouge water.She dipped a small brush made of five boards of goose feathers into the rouge water, randomly placed three dots on each piece of rice cake, and it became three red plums, vaguely superimposed on the original embossed pattern.Ah Zhao clamored for her to order plum blossoms, and she said she would, but the table was too high for her to reach. Finally all the rice cakes were ready, moved them to the house, stacked them high to dry, everyone was busy counting how many pieces there were, and calculated the weight in two. The yard was deserted, and a red candle was half lit. According to the empty space on the table, there was only the black foreign tin can with a piece of cotton rouge soaked in water. Yuexiang came over and took out the dripping red cotton, rubbed it on her cheeks and eyelids, and then pressed her palms on her face to even out the blush. "It's a waste of time," she said to herself, and he gave a short laugh.She called the child, and smeared her face with rouge.That night, when the mother and daughter walked around, their cheeks were extremely red, and they seemed to be beaming under the light.It is indeed a New Year's scene.