Chapter 14: Cloud Shadow in October 1993
Cloud Shadow in October 1993
It took me a whole week to fully harvest my five-meter-square ginseng potato field. I couldn’t hide the output of ginseng potato from everyone’s eyes. No one would have thought that an outsider could turn salted fish into a local villager.” The big family of ginseng potatoes”, the piles of plump ginseng potatoes made the onlookers’ eyes very hot, I took the opportunity to use the ginseng potatoes to exchange some daily necessities with several households in the village, especially the straw mats and linen cloths, which could make me sleep. The grass nest is more comfortable.
I only kept the necessary rations for the winter, and most of them were exchanged at a discounted rate, which is a reward for the generous host of my village.
There was a widow in the village who had a dead husband who could weave cloth with fine thread. She was not very good at craftsmanship and the quality of the cloth was poor. In addition, as an outsider, she was not welcomed by the village after her husband died. She had a hard life with her two children. I replaced most of my ginseng potatoes with her. With these ginseng potatoes, she can survive this winter with peace of mind, and her two children can eat a little bit.
The widow has two children. The eldest daughter is nine years old. She always follows her behind and helps her with the chores she can do. Sucking her fingers enviously until her sister tugged at his ears and took him away.
All the ginseng potatoes have been exchanged, but with more wooden bowls, tubs and tools, my life is much more convenient than before. Unfortunately, I can’t bring the ginseng potatoes back to the small shops in the opposite world to sell, so I have lost a lot of income.
Although my ginseng potato field is rich in harvest, it does not really make the villagers jealous. The ginseng potato in the valley behind the village has recently matured. The villagers organized to go into the valley and dig in full swing for two weeks. There are big bags of round and round ginseng potatoes. The number of those ginseng potatoes is much larger than that in my field. They are the foundation of the villagers' food and clothing.
I'm not from the village, so I don't have the right to go to the small valley to dig the ginseng potatoes belonging to the village. Like me, I can only admire others who carry ginseng potatoes back and the widow's family. It is only now that I know that I was married. When she arrived in this village, after her husband died, she became an outsider who was "hosted" in the village. When her two children became adults who could be independent and work, their family would have to leave the village.
It makes me sad to know these things. I actually like this village. I like the peaceful life here and the friendly people here, but I didn't expect that this place would only take me in temporarily. In a few years, I will grow up and be able to support myself. I have to leave the village myself, unless I can marry a woman in the village and settle down in the village, but I don't want that.
There is no shortage of ginseng potatoes in the village. I watered and fertilized the soil to loosen the soil and catch insects to increase the production of ginseng potatoes in the barren soil. Only a few families were interested, but I could clearly feel that they were still interested when they told me. Boobed, but soon became bored, because what I said was too complicated. It was unimaginable for the villagers to take care of a ginseng field from morning to night. The ginseng in the small valley was never taken care of by anyone. The whole village mobilization has never been completed.
Knowing this, I no longer worry that the villagers will treat me differently because of my ability to farm, because they really don't care. I even thought that I didn't actually need to exchange all the ginseng potatoes for others. No one cares about that even if they stay.
If you want me to say, this village is really backward, and no one in the whole village is literate.
There are children in the village who have gone out and told me that there is a small village outside the village that has been walking downstream along the river, and that small village has a grocery store and a blacksmith shop. Their yellow and bright little rounds can be exchanged for a lot of things in the village. There are smart people in the village who can use black charcoal to write on wooden boards. They can remember things that happened a long time ago. forget.
I only talk to the children about the world outside the village, because I don't want the adults in the village to know that I, who should be "from outside the village", know nothing about the situation outside the village.
Life is so short of turbulence. When Shimen opened at the end of the month, I still pulled a large bag of ginseng potatoes and went there. I thought that I could rely on workmanship to exchange ginseng potatoes anyway, and it would not be necessary to keep so many ginseng potatoes in the nest. Besides, I can still bring better food from across the world every month.
This time, the ginseng potato strips were steamed and dried three times in the same way as dried sweet potatoes. Most of the astringency was removed, and the stew tasted even better than the one I tried to make last time. It was sold as a souvenir in the canteen for five yuan. A pound, and let us earn nearly a hundred dollars.
I also go to Mrs. Liu’s house every weekend to learn how to cook. I study hard, and every time I go, I bring a lot of local specialties, and their family welcomes me very much.
Distinctive "local products" are quite popular in this street, which has brought many regular customers to the canteen, which has led to a lot of other snacks and groceries being sold. My parents will finally stop sighing, and buy them extravagantly during the changing seasons. With new clothes, there are many smiles on his face.
I am very satisfied with my current life. My parents don’t have to be exposed to the wind, sun and rain all day long. We have vegetables for every meal and occasionally meat. Although we don’t make much money, we can maintain a stable life. I even think it’s good to keep going like this. After I graduate, I will take over the store. My parents can do something they want to do every day, relax and relax.
If I am ambitious enough, I will open a restaurant when I have enough money in the canteen. With the skills I learned from Mrs. Liu, it is not a problem to support our family of three. I have my own small restaurant, and I will also have a daughter-in-law in the county town. emboldened.
After I told my thoughts, my parents were very moved, but they all said that they are not yet at the retirement age. They are only 30 years old, and they are the age of hard work. They need to make good money so that I can go to school.
It is their simple wish to send me to school, and I think it has something to do with their inability to think of a greater and nobler wish.
The commissary slowly gained a foothold, and my dad finally had some pocket money, and only one person was enough to see the store, so usually he would get up early to watch the store, and in the afternoon, my mother would watch the store, while he I was called by my neighbors to play mahjong.
My dad thinks his "career" has improved, and is very proud of his commissary. Unfortunately, his brothers and sisters still look down on him. During the holidays, my dad took me to visit my uncle's family with gifts. Uncle is not at all, uncle After entertaining us with a glass of boiled water, he said that he had something to do and saw the guests away. As for my cousin, who was one year older than me, he didn't come out in his bedroom at all.
I told my dad more than once that we don't need to curry favor with those people, but my dad stubbornly believes that blood is thicker than water, and he thinks that as long as he is promising and capable, his brothers and sisters will change their minds about him, Look up at him.
The world of adults is really complicated, I want to interfere, but I have no ability at all.
All I can do is to feed my parents and to wear warm clothes every day. They want to fight, fight, and cry. There is nothing I can do.
It's getting cold. On my birthday, I bought some meat and made something delicious. My parents ate deliciously and asked me if it was a good day.
They definitely don't remember my birthday, because they don't have birthdays themselves, and when I was a kid, I used to envy those who have birthdays, especially those who can eat birthday cakes or longevity noodles, which are very delicious and extravagant foods in my opinion. , now I have the money to buy a cake for myself, but the cake is too expensive, it is more cost-effective to buy some meat stir-fry.
At the end of the month, I went through Shimen again, gave the big dog two sausages, and hugged the big dog and groomed it until midnight. We both got up and inspected the village together, thinking about the next life by the way.
After a short period of time, the temperature will cool down. After the temperature starts to cool down, the melting speed of the snow in the mountains will slow down, and the rushing water of the river in front of the village will slow down. In some places that could not pass through, the stones will emerge from the water surface, and the river can be crossed.
I only went to the passable area when I was chasing "Lafu" with the villagers. It was a long way from the village. In my heart, I was actually yearning for the outside world, with words, currency, and cities outside. ...
but I am also very afraid of the outside world.
I'm thirteen years old, I'm not as thin as I used to be, but I'm short, I can't protect myself, I can't make a living.
The days that followed were still lacking in turbulence.
I still live in my small shack, but the widow in the village walks with me more after the last exchange of ginseng and cloth Her daughter and son learned from me how to take care of the ginseng and potato fields, and sometimes they just asked me to sit at her house and chat with me.
In her opinion, she and I are the only ones in the whole village who belong to the same kind.
In fact, she is under 30 years old, and there are no regulations in the village that do not allow remarriage or monogamy. In my opinion, she can bring her two children and find another man to start a new life, but she has a lot of concerns. She said that she is very She loves her daughter and son so much that she is reluctant to give her daughter to a man in the village as a wife, and she is also unwilling to live with other men and see her sons and daughters being bullied.
The widow told me half-truth that I was an honest and capable young man, that I could support myself by working now, and that if I didn't object, she would bet her daughter to me when I grew up.
I was surprised that she would say such a thing, and even more surprised that she would ask me to move to her house. In my opinion, she could not protect herself, and she was not qualified to take me in at all. Life comes up with the idea of us leaving the village.
The widow didn't seem to think about it at all. Even though I obviously stopped responding to her words, and even started avoiding her intentionally, she still shouted that she wanted to marry me her daughter. Not only did she tell me that, she even told the village and others to persuade me to move out of that little doghouse-like barn and into her house.
I've been here for so long, and this is the first time I've really felt bored. The widow's thin face and her familiar look made me disgusted from the bottom of my heart. However, she knew a lot of people in the village, and people were willing to listen to her nagging. , a humble tramp like me soon became a villain who didn't know how to flatter and renege, and even the little "suiters" of widows and children hated me because of this, stumbling me when I was working, or at night. Throwing stones at the thatched roof of my hut kept me awake for several nights.
Not everyone in the village just stood by and watched the fun. Those who knew me better would talk to me. They read it very clearly. Going to live in her house is nothing more than seeing that I can work and have a little "savings". In her opinion, as long as I move to her house, I will become her servant. Usually, I can use me as I go out to work. All the rewards for living are handed over to her "mother-in-law", otherwise she can take care of me casually.
As for whether she will actually betroth her daughter to me... The people in the village think no. Everyone knows widows. They believe that people like widows will wait for me to get older, and their children will find any reason to kick me when they become adults. , of course, it is also possible that I was held very firmly, then they will take me in as a servant for life in their house.
I was amazed that even after hearing the speculations of the villagers, it was hard to believe that such a down-and-out widow would plot against a child smaller than her daughter, and so forthrightly without concealing her intentions.
I hated the widow completely. I stopped talking to her, and I stopped interacting with her daughter and son. When I saw it from a distance, I would be cold-blooded, and if they forcibly approached me, I would speak ill of me.
Having lived in the village for so long, I have learned a lot of swear words, and for the first time I can use them without reservation.
I underestimated the widow, she was not at all ashamed that her thoughts were exposed, she even thought she would do it for granted, and it was her brain that was broken if I, as her "companion", did not cooperate with her.
I don't have any contact with the widow's family at all, but the widow's family has no self-knowledge. She feels that as "similars" we are always cordial, and no matter how awkward I may be, it's just a whim.
The widow's two children also often looked at me from a distance pitifully, and they would always take the initiative to say hello to me, even if I ignored them, even if I would frown and insult them, they would just back away sadly, sometimes wiping their tears in sadness, But they never get angry, let alone scold them back.
The time when they learned to take care of the ginseng field from me was a happy time we spent together, and I patiently explained to them many things they had never heard before, and told me about what I had seen in faraway worlds, and how I belonged to The stories of another world, those are the secrets that the three of us share, and they didn't even tell their mother, but now I'm estranged from them, as if the friendship and smile never existed, my indifference made them I cried many times, but no matter how soft they were, I didn't plan to change the slightest.
From the previous living conditions of the widow, it is not difficult to know that she was not doing very well in the village. Although the family of three would not starve to death, it was a common occurrence that there was no next meal. Her hair was disheveled and she looked like a little beggar. My daughter and my son, who often has snot, are both skinny and skinny, and it is only a recent thing to be able to eat enough for several days in a row.
It took about half a month for the widow to fully react after I broke up with them completely. She realized that I probably won't change my mind, and I won't help her any more in the future.
It was cold, the leaves began to turn yellow, a thin layer of frost appeared on the grass in the morning, and the turbulent river water began to gradually become warm. The adults in the village had already prepared ginseng and wood. The native products of the village are sent to the lower reaches of the river in exchange for some iron tools, tools and other living materials.
The widow came to me, she wanted to ask me if I wanted to go with her to the village in the lower reaches of the river, where there is her maiden's family, we can get more things by taking the ginseng, but I don't even look at her , I want to act with the rest of the village, even if the exchange is small, it doesn't matter, I don't care.
The widow was rarely angry, cursing me viciously, and even pounced on me to rip me, and if someone else hadn't pulled her away, the stick in her hand might have hit me on the head.
She stared at me, I stared at her, and that was the moment when we really had a vendetta.
I went to the downstream villages with the main group to open our eyes, so I only brought a small bag of ginseng potatoes. Compared with other adults who carry big bags and small bags, I am more fortunate than a few lucky children who rarely go out. resemblance.
The river water did not completely expose the stones. The river water flowed very fast just below my ankles. I followed the village adults in a row and carefully waded forward with rattan in hand. Several adults slipped in the river in the middle. The goods on his back were scattered in the river and he was scrambling to retrieve them, but some of them had been washed away by the water, so anxious that the man cried out and his face turned green.
I had a small pocket on my body, and I walked more cautiously.
Just after crossing a river, the usual lazy and laid-back appearance of the villagers changed completely. They became very vigilant. The wind and grass in the woods by the river attracted them very much. They said that there are occasional wolves and bears in the woods this season. If we don't go out in groups, the odds of coming back alive after encountering a beast are pitifully low.
After all, most of the adults in the village were dispatched this time. The team of more than a dozen people looked very imposing. The adults were all armed with weapons.
The way down was very peaceful. I saw a few deer in the distance, and they ran away a few hundred meters away. Someone in the group found wolf dung on the edge of the woods, but the number was not large. It is estimated that those wolves have seen it from a distance We have retreated.
I thought the villages in the lower reaches of the river could be reached by walking at most two or three hours, because when I heard from the villagers, they described it as very relaxed, as if the two villages were so close together that even a weak girl like a widow would dare to come here. I went back to my parents' house alone when the river flow was slower, but it was only when I actually followed them on the road that I realized that I was going horribly wrong.
We crossed the river in the early morning and started walking along the river. There is basically no real "road" between the jagged stones and the woods. We often encounter broken walls and large stones and need to make a big circle before we can continue to move forward. However, rest After four or five times, we finally saw a decent road until the sky began to get dark. After walking along the path for about half an hour, we finally saw the outline of the village in the distance, watching the smoke from the cooking smoke and the buildings of stones. , wooden and thatched cottages, I breathed a sigh of relief and my mood became happy.
The large army was welcomed all the way from the village. The scale of the village in front of us was obviously much larger than the one we lived in. They even had a stone fence and guards guarding the gate. The guards had strong leather armor and waists. With the scabbard in between, I felt that I was a little closer to the civilized world.
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