Chapter 2 Snack box hanging on the beam

At the age of nine, his father officially handed over the power of family "diplomacy". During the nine years, my mother gave birth to "four eggs" one after another: iron egg, dog egg, melon egg, and naughty egg.Mother said, they are all foodies, a bunch of screaming mouths. At that time, life at home became increasingly difficult.For a while, in order to keep the mouths open, my father secretly returned to his old job, carrying the burden, shaking a rattle in his hand, and doing the business of "replacing needles with bad hair".There is a glass bottle hidden in my father's pick, which is his "treasure bottle", and there are colorful jelly beans in the bottle, and he uses those jelly beans to seduce people.But he didn't do it a few times before he was caught by the "city management committee" in the town.On the day he was caught, his father was covered with paste, and large ink characters were pasted on the front and back of his body: "Opportunists are the ones!" Then he was taken to parade in the four townships... From then on, my father could no longer do anything people.

At that time, the so-called "diplomacy" for a family meant that, in addition to going to the team for meetings, sharing dishes, and food at the right time and place, it meant mutual exchanges between relatives.According to the common saying on the plain, it is "stringing relatives".In the countryside of the plains, "connecting with relatives" is a purely folk way of communication, a concentrated expression of rural cultural life, and it is also a boast and display of living conditions.You have to show it when you have a baby, you have to show it when you get married, and you have to show it when you die.Here, the annual "meeting" is to be rushed; weddings and funerals are to be "asked"; and some folk festivals are also to be "goed".

In the early years, it was naturally the father who "walked" on behalf of a family.At that time, my father was always wearing his cleaner coat, carrying a box of snacks in his hand, walking a little lonely on the dirt road in the country.Father is a person who loves face very much, he knows that his "face" is in his hands.Therefore, when he was about to leave the house, he would always mutter something: "Just one box." His mother would always answer him: "How many more boxes can I carry? Do you always have it?" So my father stopped talking.Then, Yu Yu walked out the door.

Speaking of which, outside the village, their relatives are not that many, and there are only three or four families who often come and go.Two aunts, one aunt, and one uncle. The uncle is still a "cousin", and he can be regarded as a friend of the father in his early years.With just three or four relatives, my father still found it difficult to "connect" them.Just carrying such a box of snacks, his "face" is too thin, so thin that he can't stand in front of others.Finally one day, on the eighth day of April, when it was time to go to my aunt's house for a meeting, my father who had just swam across the street was really ashamed to go out. He looked up at the beams of the house, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Gangdan, you go, you go."

There was only one box of snacks left on Liangtou. At that time, in the rural areas of the plain, the boxes of snacks were not for people to eat, and people were reluctant to eat them. They were specially used to string relatives.If relatives come to someone's house, no matter how many boxes of snacks they bring, they must be hung up on the beams of the house, and they will be used again when they visit relatives next time.Here, people don't even pay much attention to the quality of the center, but what they value more is the box that holds the snacks.The box was made of yellow horse dung paper, covered with a rectangular paper cover, and there was a seal on the cover, which was the kind of post with red auspicious patterns drawn on it.If such a paper box is hung for a long time, it will be easily stained by the oil on the dim sum.Therefore, people who are more particular will take out the snacks in the box and wrap them in oiled paper, and only hang up the empty box, and then re-line the box when they meet relatives in the future, just like buying a new one. the same.How many snack boxes are hung on the beams of the house, it is really a symbol of decency.

At the age of nine, he was very excited to go out to "socialize" on behalf of his family for the first time.Niang said: "Wash your feet and put on your shoes." He usually doesn't wear shoes very much, but he put on shoes that day.The shoes are handmade by my mother, they are a bit pinched when worn, so just pinch them.Then, my father carefully took the box of snacks off the beam, blew off the dust that fell on it, and handed it to him.Father touched his head and said, "Go." When he was about to leave the house, he found his three younger brothers: Tiedan, Goudan, and Guadan, silently looking at him with their fingers in their mouths, their eyes were all green (at that time, Naodan was even younger, Nudan is still breastfeeding in her mother’s arms).He felt that he had grown up suddenly, turned around and patted his brothers on the head, and said, "Be obedient."

However, when he walked on the village road, the invisible humiliation came up all at once.Yes, no wonder my father didn't want to go out.On the village road, he saw many villagers going to the meeting. Some of them were riding bicycles and some were on foot. Not to mention their bright clothes, they were carrying stacks of snack boxes in their hands.There are five boxes, three boxes, at least two boxes... Especially when he saw the copper hammer, the copper hammer was sitting on the back seat of Liu Yidao's "Flying Pigeon" car, grinning, "Ri'er" It passed by him in an instant.There are ten boxes hanging on one side of the handlebar!And he carried such a box in his hand, which was the "face" of the family!

My aunt lives in Jiaozhuang, Bali Road.He just walked silently, very slowly, without helping anyone.When he stepped onto the small bridge, he encountered the first crisis of his life.At that moment, he was stunned!All of a sudden, the sweat poured out of his body.Originally, he was walking with a swing, and just as he got onto the small bridge, the tie rope of the box of snacks in his hand suddenly broke, and the box of snacks fell to the ground with a "snap".In theory, it doesn't matter much if it falls off, just tie it up again.However, he was dumbfounded when he saw it, oh my god, what was in that box was not snacks, but donkey dung!Yes, eight dried donkey dung eggs fell out of that box! ! ...

He sat down on his ass, just sitting on the bridge.He had never sweated so much on his forehead. The sweat numb his face bean by bean, and then trickled down his neck like a stream, and his body seemed to be covered with earthworms.He sat on the bridge for a long time, seeing the sun was setting, but he still didn't know what to do?go back?How do you go back and say that the snack box contains "donkey dung eggs"?Will father believe him?Will the mother believe him?It was the first time he went out alone, and he encountered such an embarrassing thing... So, he cried. After he finished crying, he squatted down slowly, picked up the eight dried donkey dung eggs one by one into the snack box, covered it with paper, and first took the red auspicious pattern on the sticker with the palm of his hand. Smooth it out little by little, press it on the surface of the box again, and tie it up again with extra care with the knotted rope.Then, he stood up, looked at Tian'er, took a deep breath, and started on the road again.

Before he was about to set off on the road, as if by a strange coincidence, a strange idea suddenly popped up in his mind, and it was this idea that gave him a new understanding of life in the following days.At that time, he was already a second-grade student in a rural primary school.He took out a broken pencil tip from his pocket, picked up the box carefully, and drew a "ten" mark on the bottom of the box of "snacks".He couldn't explain why he had to make such a mark, but he did. In front of you is Jiaozhuang.Jiaozhuang is a big village, and the "meeting" is also famous for tens of miles around.In the distance, the noise of boiling came over like water.First there was the wave after wave of urine smell, which was transmitted from the livestock market, and a wild donkey neighed suddenly in the smell. It was long and quiet; followed by the yelling of Yipo pigs and sheep, the yelling was hot and messy, like live maggots jumping out of a sauce vat!The women are surging in the red and green cloth market, each of them seems to have "liberated" their belts, moving their buttocks one by one.In front of the small stalls selling fried buns, steamed buns, and hot pepper soup, there is a gluttonous aroma, which catches people's noses one after another in the sound of ear-cracking, oiling your heart!The men carrying the snack boxes all looked very reserved, walking in the scent, looking very decent, but most of them wore half-new trousers that were partly open, and the trousers were naturally worn by women at the bottom of the box. Each one of his stocks seemed to be crotch tight... No one would walk on his own heart, only he walked on his heart.Not only is he stepping on his heart, but he is also holding a coal in his hand!In this way, he walked into the crowd with one knife and one knife, and walked into the "meeting" in Jiaozhuang.He was about to walk into his aunt's house, and he didn't know what the result would be!

Turning a small bend, he suddenly found two rows of women squatting on the side of the village road in front of him. Each woman had a square scarf spread out in front of her, and stacks of snack boxes were placed on the square scarf.The women put on bright clothes one by one, like a piece of dwarfed sorghum in the sun! The "sorghum people" tilted their goose-like necks, and the red ropes on the braids were moving one by one, looking eagerly at the passers-by who came and went, and said in one voice, "Do you want it?" He knew that these women came out to sell dim sum.Generally, families with many relatives received a lot of snacks, and some offered to sell them at that time in order to exchange some money for oil and salt.The women greeted the dessert boxes in front of them, some boxes had been unsealed and the covers were removed, which were specially displayed for buyers to see.Originally, the snacks bought from the supply and marketing cooperative or the "hui" for one yuan were only sold here for seventy or eighty cents... When he saw these women, his mind exploded with a "boom"!Going down, that step by step is like walking on nails.For a moment, he suddenly wanted to run, so he turned around and ran!But he held back.At this time, he heard the dim sum women shouting one after another: "Look, new seal, new box. New seal, new box..." Amidst the cries of "new seal, new box" , There was a voice slanted out like a rabbit, and the voice was directed at him: "Steel egg, is it steel egg? It's past noon, why did you come here?!" For a moment, he seemed to be nailed As if he was stuck, he stood blankly in the middle of the village road, his mind was blank!He just hugged the box of snacks tightly, as if he was afraid of being taken away... At this moment, a whip exploded in his ear!A driver shouted: "Baby, are you stupid?!" With a jolt, he recognized that it was his cousin calling him. It was the voice of his cousin Caicai, who also came out to sell dim sum.Well, if she...cousin sees him stunned and sweating, she says again: "Go home, go home quickly." He was the last guest to enter the aunt's house.When he walked into the yard, the aunt's house had already opened a "seat".The auntie patted him on the head, and said: "This child, why did you come here at this time?" Then she took the box of "snacks" and put it on the wooden cabinet in the main room.Then he led him out, but he was still staring at the box of "snacks"... There were two square wooden tables in the yard, and the wooden tables were already full of people.At this time, the relatives had already started eating, and the aunt sat him down at the corner of an old-fashioned wooden table and said, "Squeeze, let's eat." After finishing speaking, she went back to work. At the aunt's house, he ate that meal with horror!There are a lot of sea bowls on the table, most of which are vermicelli, stewed rice, tofu, etc., and occasionally there are a few slices of fat and oily!There are also steamed buns, which are steamed buns wrapped in paper.These are his favorite food.If it was normal, he would wish for a hand to pop out of his throat!But at this moment, he couldn't take a bite, he just felt nauseous and wanted to vomit... He just watched the chopsticks flying in front of his eyes, and the mouths of relatives were sobbing and rhythmic, like wind and clouds , Seeing that the sea bowls are empty one by one!But he was still sitting there, not moving.A relative sitting next to him looked at him in surprise and said, "Eat." He hung his head and remained silent.At this time, the aunt came over and asked with concern: "What? Recognize the birth?" He whispered like a mosquito: "It's not good." The aunt said: "Why don't you eat it?" He whispered back: "Eat. Auntie said "hmm", patted his head, and went to work again.His eyes were like glass balls, following his aunt Gulu all the time, wherever her aunt went, his eyes followed her.A few times, when the aunt came to the wooden cabinet where the snacks were placed, his heart jumped to his throat and he almost spit it out!When the aunt walked away, she swallowed slowly again.The heart was almost jumping in the throat, and the whole esophagus was fishy!After tossing and turning a few times like this, his whole body was almost going to collapse...God, at that time, the light just passed by the needle point bit by bit. Later, he left the aunt's house as if he had fled.On the way home, he felt his body suddenly became lighter, as light as a swallow!He hopped and hopped on the dirt road in the country, the wind in the field washed away the hot sweat from his body, and the cry of the sparrow made him feel very kind!When he looked back at Jiaozhuang, he smiled, and his tears filled his eyes.He ate one of the two steamed buns sent by his aunt and kept the other. The sweetness is something he will never forget for the rest of his life! He still had a few days of panic and anxiety.At that time, every day when he came back from school, before entering the door, he would quietly ask Tie Dan: "Has Auntie come?" Tie Dan shook his head and said, "No wow." No." In this way, he will secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Originally, things passed like this.Although the scratch left on my heart was a little heavier, it was just a scratch.The father never went out again, and all the "diplomacy" of a family was entrusted to him.Because, although he is only a student in the second grade of elementary school, he has become the only literate person in his family.There are still many things he has to face... But after about half a year, suddenly one day, he found that box of snacks at Qiu Sheng's house! That day he went to Qiusheng's house to borrow a dustpan. In the main room of his house, he suddenly looked up and saw the box of marked snacks.A total of five boxes were hung on the beam, four of which were bundled together, but this box was alone.He was not mistaken, the mark was still there, a crooked "ten", which he wrote on the small bridge with the tip of a pencil... For a moment, he was stunned, and it took a long time to come back to his senses .Finally, he couldn't help laughing.Qiu Sheng asked in surprise, "What are you laughing at?" His face tensed, and he said, "I didn't laugh." He turned three somersaults in the straw nest in a row, and couldn't stop laughing! Later, the box of "Dim Sum" was first transferred to Guitian's house, then to Ershui's house, from Ershui's house to Baocan's house, and then to Fang Dou's house, Sanchun's house, Mai Cheng's house, Lao Qiao's house... Always remember that mark, that mark has been engraved on his heart.For some reason, he unconsciously developed a habit of looking at other people's beams. No matter which house he entered, he couldn't help but look at other people's beams, and look at the snack boxes hanging on the beams. ...is that "decent"?One family after another, just mentioning it like this, why? Yes, those boxes are the dignity of the villagers.Even if it is a "donkey dung egg", as long as it is pasted and sealed in a box, it can be hung on the beam in a grandiose manner!At first, this thought startled him, and there was something in it that made it hard to explain.He's scared.He was intimidated by the grandiose "fake". Once, at Sanchun's house, he said "ah" abruptly.At that moment, he really wanted to tell the whole story.He wanted to tell people that the box contained "donkey dung eggs"!But he gritted his teeth and still didn't dare to say it.The "Dim Sum" has been transferred to so many people, and the sticker has been changed many times. Has no one opened it? !His intuition told him he couldn't. At the end of the new year, finally one day, the box of "snacks" came back again. The "dim sum" was brought by the second uncle who was a kidnapper in this village, and the second uncle who was lame on one leg said to his father, "Uncle, this box of dim sum was brought by Maqiao's third aunt. To be honest, I'm afraid it won't be long , He weighed it back and forth, and the rope was about to fall apart. You have a lot of children, let the children eat." The father smiled, and the father said, "Look, what is this for? They are not rich." But the second uncle put down his snacks and left. On the night of New Year's Eve, my father really opened the box of snacks. For the first time, my father said generously: "Eat it."Mother said: "Take it back for him! Let him have a look." Father sat there without speaking for a long time. After a while, he said silently: "Forget it. Don't say it, no one will say it anymore." , my father didn't say anything, he just took out the "donkey dung" in the box and threw it away... The next morning, when he opened his eyes, he saw the snack box hanging on the beam at a glance. There was a mark on the bottom of the box.But he knew that the box was empty... In the morning, standing in the snowy yard, he suddenly said to his younger brother Tie Dan: "Sometimes, life is very painful." Tie Dan looked at him in surprise and said, "Brother, did you have thistles on your feet?"