Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

It was almost time for dinner when Mrs. Wei came back from outside. Mrs. Chen looked at her and didn't say anything. She just asked everyone to wash their hands and eat. When the dinner was almost finished, Mrs. Chen finally spoke, "The meal is almost finished. I'll clear the table later. I have a few words to say."

Everyone put down their bowls and chopsticks and looked at Mrs. Chen. Zhixiang has to prepare for the National Examination these days. He often goes out to study articles with his classmates, but he is at home today. He looked at his mother a little strangely, as if he had never seen his mother with such a serious expression.

"Today let's talk about the affairs of the second child's family. Yurong, you are only twenty-seven years old this year, and the second child has left like this. Our family is not that old-fashioned, and we cannot let you be widowed by Yong'er at such a young age. My I mean, I will find you a family in our village or a nearby village. In this way, you will have a place for the rest of your life. Otherwise, it would be a pity for you to be young. Yurong, if you agree, I will. I'll go find the matchmaker tomorrow and arrange the marriage for you first." Seeing Wei's behavior these days, Mrs. Chen was afraid that she might have something to do outside, which would ruin her reputation. It's better to propose marriage to her openly and openly, and others won't be able to say anything.

When Mrs. Wei heard what Chen said, she was shocked and quickly knelt down in front of Mrs. Chen and Xu Chengkuan, "Father, mother, I am the daughter-in-law of the Xu family and will be for the rest of my life. I will not marry. There are also Wencheng and Wenchang, they are still young and have not grown up yet." As he said this, he kept kowtowing to the two old people.

"Oh, these words of mine are definitely not to test you. I sincerely plan for you. You are still young and your days are long. It is difficult to live alone. Our family treats you as if you are a girl, so we have plans for you. , If there is something good, you can get married, and the couple will live together. As for Wencheng and Wenchang, we will raise them," Mrs. Chen still persuaded the second daughter-in-law.

Xu Chengkuan never spoke. He had lived with Chen for so many years and knew Chen's temper. Chen must have felt that this matter was inappropriate, so he persuaded her like this. The rest of the people didn't speak either. Since the old man was here, it wasn't their turn.

Mrs. Wei still knelt on the ground and couldn't get up, "Mom, if I don't get married, I will be a member of the Xu family forever." Tears fell down as she spoke.

Mrs. Chen sighed, "Get up. Let's talk about this first. If one day you find someone you like, just tell me, and your family will definitely let you get married like a girl."

Only then did Wei get up from the ground, wiped her tears, and then stood there.

"Okay, let's clear the table. The children have gone up the mountain during the day, so they should be tired. If you have nothing to do, go to bed early. There will be work tomorrow." Mrs. Chen also went to the ground to pick up the table, and Mrs. Xue quickly stopped her. He led Jingya and Jing Hanju to put away all the food.

When only the old couple were left in the room, the old man looked at Mrs. Chen and said, "Did you see any signs? I just said that today."

"Oh, there are no signs of it. I just think she is widowed at a young age, which is really pitiful. To be honest, this second daughter-in-law, although she is a bit lazy and lazy, has treated Zhiyong well in the past few years. Zhiyong It's pitiful to think about being away from home all year round and leaving her alone. This is why my eldest daughter-in-law and I have been letting her go. I mean, if there is a suitable one, let her get married. It's too deceptive to force someone to become a widow," the old lady said to the old man while spreading the quilt. "what do you say?"

"Okay, you can just say these things. Our family is not that old-fashioned. If we can find a good one, it will certainly be better than staying here. Yong'er is also unlucky, and he can't blame others." The old man sighed, No more words were said. Seeing Mrs. Chen spread out the bedding, she took off her clothes and got into bed and lay down. "Go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow to go up the mountain. This grass is not even half of it." After saying that, he fell asleep.

Mrs. Chen was busy with these tasks at home every day. She was not brisk. She raised her head and blew out the oil lamp and went to sleep.

Ever since Mrs. Chen said what she said that night, Mrs. Wei has become more stable. She cooks, feeds pigs and mends at home every day, and doesn't go out much. Mrs. Chen saw this and didn't know what to say.

Wen Han and Wen Cheng both went to school, leaving Jing Han, Wen Xuan, Wenchang, and the Lin family's Yumei to pick monkey legs together. Naturally, Mrs. Xue was worried, so she followed him up the mountain, leaving Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Wei at home to watch the monkey legs drying. There is also a trick to drying the monkey legs. You can't just dry them like this and make them straight. That won't work. You need to knead it while drying it, and rub every monkey leg vigorously until it looks like a spiral.

The sun at this time is already very hot, so you can't stay in the sun all the time. Mrs. Chen would collect the monkey legs that had been exposed to the sun for a while, rub them out in a shady place, and then expose them to the sun. The monkey legs need to be rubbed about three times and then dried in the sun.

By noon, most of the monkeys' legs were dry, and Mr. Xue came back with the children. Ms. Chen quickly went to boil water to scald the vegetables. When the vegetables came out, everyone was busy rubbing the monkey's legs.

"Mom, the Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon. Shouldn't our family buy some glutinous rice?" Ms. Xue asked while working.

Mrs. Chen thought for a while, "Oh, it's already May. Look at my brain, I forget a lot. Okay, if you are free in the afternoon, go to the town and buy some glutinous rice. It's the festival, so what? You also have to make some rice dumplings.”

"Okay, actually there are grocery stores in our village, but they are more expensive than those in the town. Anyway, there is nothing to do, I will go there in the afternoon. I don't know if the third and fourth children will come back during the festival?" He wasn't idle either, and after a while, he jerked off a lot.

"Who knows? The third child and the others are far away, so they can come back. After all, they are in someone else's shop, and it is not his own decision. The fourth child is close, but he is close to his mother-in-law, so he might go there Let's celebrate the holidays. No matter what, whoever wants to come back will come back. We don't want to come back. Otherwise, it would be like holding a fire. "The old lady also thought about it. When a son is married, he is not just a son. Asking for too much will only put your son in a dilemma.

After lunch, Mr. Xue went to the town to buy glutinous rice. Rice is not produced here, let alone glutinous rice. Xue bought ten kilograms of glutinous rice for seventy cents, and then bought a pack of candied dates for a total of one hundred cents. "Oh, the price of things has increased again." Xue thought to herself.

When he got home, he found a big basin and soaked the rice. The glutinous rice alone was not enough to eat. Xue found out the rhubarb rice and soaked another ten kilograms. Today is the third day of May. I will make zongzi tomorrow and cook them in the evening. They will be ready to eat on Dragon Boat Festival morning.

On the fourth day of May, Mrs. Xue did not go up the mountain, but stayed at home to make rice dumplings. A total of twenty kilograms of rice were wrapped together by Xue, Chen, Wei, and Huixin. Jingya was also learning from the side, and it didn't take long to wrap them all.

On the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, before dawn, Mrs. Xue woke up Wenhan and the others. The children got dressed, then ran to the river to wash their faces, and then ran to the mountains to the south. I pedaled to the top of a hill in one breath and sat there waiting for the sunrise. After a while, the orange-red sun slowly rose.

The children all cheered, "The sun is coming out, the sun is coming out."

After watching the sunrise, everyone went down the mountain, picked some mugwort by the river, and stuck it on the door of their house. Entering the house, Mrs. Chen had already fished out all the rice dumplings, as well as a large basin of eggs. "Come and eat rice dumplings and eggs. That's all for this morning. Just sit down and eat."

The children all got two eggs. Of course, they couldn't eat them right now. They had to take them out to compete with others to see whose eggs were the hardest. It means two people hold cooked eggs and touch each other's hard to see whose egg breaks first. This is children’s favorite game, and it’s only during the Dragon Boat Festival that there are eggs for them to play.

"Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. You little ones should not go up the mountain. It will make you tired." Mrs. Chen looked at these grandchildren and was indescribably happy.

"Nai, today is a holiday in school. Wen Chengdu and I have agreed that we have to go up the mountain today. There are only a few good days in total. The monkey legs will get old in a few days. Let's get some as much as we can. It's money." Wen Han took a rice dumpling and was peeling it.

"Okay, then you can do whatever you want. I'm just afraid that you will get tired. It would be good to get more money to sell." Mrs. Chen also sat down to eat rice dumplings.

After eating, Wenhan took his brother and sister up the mountain.

The monkey legs would get old after just a few harvests. Jinghan and the others went up the mountain for a total of ten times and couldn't get them. In total, they should be able to get about forty kilograms of dry monkey legs. This is already quite a lot, but you must know that this thing really doesn’t weigh down the scales. The dried monkey legs were put into two separate bags. The ones belonging to the elder’s family and those belonging to the second child’s family had to be separated and could not be put together.

Vendors selling dried vegetables have been coming to the village for a long time. Each pound of dried monkey legs is charged thirty-two cents per pound. This price is really good. Mrs. Chen asked Wenchang to bring the hawker back, and then sold all the monkey legs in the house. About 40 kilograms of dried vegetables were sold for a total of more than 1,300 yuan.

Jinghan and the others made a little more, selling about 700 wen, while Wencheng and the others made less, selling more than 600 wen. The children were very happy when they saw so much money. Xue found a box and asked Wenhan to put all the money in it. Wenhan put the money in the box and gave it to Jingya for safekeeping. "Sister, you are at home all the time and you are careful. You can take care of this. Jinghan is so hairy that she is not stable."