Chapter 6 1936 Duck Collection - Past Events

It's been more than ten years since this happened. I guess I'm six years old.Because the second time I saw my eldest son, Uncle Si, his funny braid was gone. It was between summer and fall.I seem to have never been to school.Mom was afraid that I would fight or eat indiscriminately when I went outside to play with Ruilong and the others, so she would sit next to her every day, except after dinner and after taking a shower, I would each take five small coins to the gate of the road with my eldest brother. Except for Shiyuan's jelly, the rest are not allowed to go out!As for why you can eat jelly again?That's probably because Mom knew that Shiyuan jelly was rose sugar, so she wouldn't get sick after eating it.Originally, the epidemic at that time was really serious. I heard from Ruilong's mother that Yang Laoliu's family of four got sick from the fifteenth day, and died within three days!

We sat on mats in the small patio behind the main room.Mom took out bunches of square characters from a small black iron box to read for me, and she put a hemp basket on her lap.The wind blowing from the alley is cool and soft, which can easily make people drowsy. When I fell on the mat, my mother always stopped her work and took a cattail fan for me to drive away those who like to stay on people's faces. Mosquitoes.Occasionally, my mother would sleep, and she would not wake up until my elder brother came back from school with his schoolbag and complained that he was hungry. Then, dinner would definitely be a little later!

It seems that Dad has been away to the old house in Jiangjiaping in the countryside for a long time, and one day he suddenly asked the fourth uncle to pick us up.Fourth Uncle didn't quite know what he meant, probably because he heard about the epidemic in the city.Mom didn't say anything, she knew that the eldest and second sisters were all in the village, so I naturally had them take care of me.I only asked my fourth uncle not to allow my eldest brother to take a bath in the country stream. Because the elder brother came back a little late a few days ago, and his pigtails were still wet, Mom knew that he must have taken a bath in the river with some classmates, and beat him hard.The fourth uncle is the eldest son, he is not fat, but he is very strong.Mom used to say this is a person who can walk.It's a 120-mile journey from Tongren to my Fenghuang. He can carry a load of 60 catties and set off early in the morning.When he got home, he hurriedly went to the kitchen to boil water and wash his feet.Our dinner that night was fried beef with pumpkin.

When my mother picked up vegetables to persuade him, he chose beef without spicy peppers and put them in my bowl.What a good fourth uncle! We were so young back then, and my elder brother and I still sat in the same basket to carry the burden for my fourth uncle!Although my eldest brother is five or six years older than me, he doesn't seem to be out of shape on my fourth uncle's shoulders.There are more than forty miles away from the city in the countryside, and my mother was afraid that the sun would make us sick, so we set off as soon as the sky turned gray, and the sun was still red when we reached Tangdong Mountain, which was halfway through the journey.When we reached the top of the mountain, my fourth uncle took us out and let each of us pee, and we all sat under a big thorn oak tree to rest.Countless small stones were placed on the branches of the tree, and there was another small house made of stones on the left side of the tree.The fourth uncle explained to us that the small house is the land of the mountain god, and it was built for those who drove the mountains to hunt wild boars; the stones on the trees are tired: anyone who walks a long way, just put a stone on the tree, and he will not get tired.But when the eldest brother asked him why he didn't also put a stone, he didn't make a sound.

His braid was as thin and long as his body.Originally, the straw hat was put on the head, but I don’t know if the braid is too long or he is too casual, it always falls off at every turn. When I was behind him, the tip of the braid was always on my head. Sway up. "Yun'er, don't make trouble! It's hard to leave me!" I stretched out my hand and tugged at his braid just to pull, he always said so kindly. "Siman ①, are you here?" the eldest brother asked anxiously. "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! Brother Yun is not in a hurry, why are you in such a panic? Look, I'm running!" He stepped up a little bit, and the eldest brother had a headache again.

He laughed at his elder brother all the way. At that time, Dad was sitting on a small bench talking with his aunt, fifth uncle and fourth aunt on the yard in the courtyard.My aunt hasn't seen me for two years, she hugged me and kissed me again and again.Dad asked us again if we were hungry, but we were already full from eating sweet wine and rice tofu on the way.When the lights were on, I saw my eldest sister, my second sister, and my aunt Mangu ② come in with a bunch of radishes in their hands. At night, my elder sister and I waited in my aunt's room to sleep. The countryside is much more interesting!Nothing is too hot and there are very few mosquitoes at night.The eldest sister seemed to be familiar with everything after being here for a while, and she led me to the sheep pen early the next morning to see a sleeping white sheep smaller than a cat, and a cow in the cow pen that was crooked and sucking.

We went to the bamboo garden to see the bamboo again.At that time, I thought bamboo was a very strange thing.It turns out that the bamboo in the city is usually so big that it is amazing to sell meat at the butcher's table to make money tubes!But for those southern bamboos in the back garden, when my eldest sister taught me to try to hug them, my hands couldn't touch them.Mangu secretly went to the garden ridge to pick more than ten peaches.Then we ran to the edge of the ditch outside the gate and picked up a bag of clam shells. Everything is novel: for example, the dozen or so white ducks that Uncle Wu fed, they would fly from the ridge of the pond across the ditch with one wing.At night, when the fourth uncle and the others went into the stream to catch fish, they didn't use any nets, just a torch and a sickle.My aunt feeds seven or eight pheasants, which can fly up the house or up the tree, but they don’t fly away; moreover, as long as you hold a handful of rice in your hand and tease your mouth a little, they will scramble to come to you .Everything has a taste.We went to the nearby villages to play during the day, and at night we always sat in the yard together and listened to the stories of my aunt learning how to hunt wild boars and badgers.My aunt is so kind. When we went to bed, she would often take out fried rice, chestnuts and crispy beans from the big oil jar for us to eat!

The peaches on the ridge of the back garden were already ripe, and Mangu would steal them several times a day for us. My father didn't come out very often, and my fourth and fifth uncles never spoke. Occasionally, when my aunt saw her, she would just smile and say, "Xiao'e, you forgot to complain about your stomachache again! You really don't listen to me——Yun'er , Don’t listen to what you Mangu said, eating too much will ruin your stomach! Take me, or you won’t be able to eat chicken legs at night!” It doesn't seem to be very close to the place where there is a market in the village, and there is usually no meat for sale in small villages except for the market every five days and every six days.Therefore, we ate chicken almost every day, but I was the only one who was young, so the chicken thighs always belonged to me.

What we love to see but are afraid of seeing are the millstones and automatic waterwheels in the small millhouse on the dam in the south of the stream; the millhouse is managed by Uncle Wu.The round millstone was fixed on a wooden stake and just turned around.Uncle Wu is like a ashes seller, covered in chaff, just sweeping the rice that has escaped from the grinding trough with a broom between the spinning millstones.He didn't seem to be in a hurry. When Moshi walked up to him, he jumped and passed Moshi again.We are anxious for him and admire his courage.The waterwheel is also smelly, and it is made of some long and short pennies.Its purpose is to irrigate fields that are higher than the stream.

Some of the big ones are bigger than the house, and the small ones also have a drying mat. They are erected one after another near the road, being rushed by the rushing water in the ditches, and some of them even babble and babble. Sound, pour water from the bamboo tube next to the car to the suspended soap ③.Its fear is that when the water in the tube overflows or spills out of the soap, the water will be poured onto the road with a bang, and if you are a little unprepared, your clothes will be soaked through.We stood from a distance and watched passers-by rushing past with their heads in their arms.Although Mangu is only four years older than me, she is used to seeing it, but she dares to walk up and down below.The eldest sister and the eldest aunt know that the car will be connected to the foot when it overflows, so it goes without saying that they are not afraid of being drenched in water!

Only my elder brother and my second sister dare not try it anyway. ———————————————————————— ①The villagers called Uncle Man Man. ② Mangu is the youngest aunt. ③ Gouging out wood to divert water.