The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

After another two months, the temperature on the mountain began to warm up, and the trees on the mountain slowly became fresh and green again. The cuckoo began to cry 'cuckoo cuckoo' incessantly in the mountains. At this time, I will remember that this is the season of spring plowing and spring planting. After this long period of slash-and-burn farming, we have planted a lot of land, including corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and rice. In addition, we also grow peppers and greens. The little black dog brought from the bottom of the mountain during the Chinese New Year has also grown up, and often runs down the slope and into the field after us. We can still feel a little angry.

Now that we have enough food, we don't have to worry about eating anymore. However, we miss our children more and miss the home down the hill even more. One day, I suddenly noticed that Xiugu's belly was obviously bigger, and her walking posture had become a little clumsy. She asked me to guess whether the baby in her womb was a boy or a girl. I said that both boys and girls are good. But she asked me to stick it on her stomach and listen to the sound, and said that the loudest voice was the male baby, because the male baby had great strength and was very active, and the female baby was so quiet. I listened, and all I heard was some rumbling sounds, and I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl.

Her belly was getting bigger, and it was the time when the field was getting busier. I saw that she had a big belly and it was inconvenient to walk, so I wouldn't let her work in the field. However, she said that it didn't matter, and she still followed me into the field to help me dig potatoes and sweet potatoes. Especially when the bread was almost ripe, I stayed on the edge of the ground almost all night to prevent the monkeys from stealing the grain. So, she had to stay alone in the house. But what I'm most worried about is that she won't go down the mountain, and who will deliver her baby in the future.

One night, as we were in bed, I said to her, 'You're about to give birth, or I'll take you down the mountain.'" Otherwise, if you give birth, who will deliver it for you? Aunt Xiu said, 'What are you afraid of?' As soon as I heard this, I said to her solemnly, 'I don't know how to deliver babies.' But she didn't think so, saying, 'You won't, I can teach you.'" I've had four children, and I know everything about midwifery. I shook my head and said, 'No, it's not carpenter's work, I can't do it.' She said, 'There are only two of us on the mountain, and if you don't do this, who will?'

There was still a month before I went into labor, and I saw that Aunt Xiu began to make clothes, quilts and urine pads for the baby. I know that women who have given birth have to eat some eggs and drink some chicken soup to replenish their nutrition. But we don't have any of that. Actually, I still want to take Xiu Gu down the mountain, let her give birth to a child under the mountain, and then live under the mountain for two or three months or half a year, and then come back when the child is older. However, Xiu Gu still insisted on refusing. And at this time, her belly is already very big, and I am afraid that she will not be able to go down the mountain.

In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, this is the busiest time of the year, the vegetables in the vegetable field have grown, these vegetables must be collected in a hurry, with salt pickling, or they will grow in the ground, rot in the ground. The sweet potatoes and potatoes that had been planted earlier had to be dug up, and if they were not dug up, the wild boar would collapse. And the two parcels of bread in the fields that were planted earlier are also about to ripen. Moreover, Xiugu is about to give birth, and apart from cooking and housework, there is very little work in the field.

I don't have time to go down the mountain now. And every time I go down the mountain, I have to take things from home, but my parents are not rich in the house. Originally, when I was at home, I went out all day to work as a carpenter for other people's families, and I could earn some money, and my family's life was not bad, but since I left home, my family had to rely on my father to work in the fields and fields, and my younger brother was still in school, so the family had almost no money. Usually I can only earn some money by raising pigs and selling eggs to buy salt and buy some necessities. However, when I went up the mountain, I had to take a lot of things from the house. So, I feel very embarrassed myself. Now, my children are placed in my parents' house, and my parents have to pay for the life and school of my three children, which makes me feel very guilty. So, if it's not a last resort, I try not to go down the mountain and ask them for it.

However, Aunt Xiu must supplement nutrition when she gives birth to a child, otherwise, her body will suffer and fall ill. So, I had to find a way to get some nutrition for her. In the middle of the mountains, the best nourishment is wild boar. An adult wild boar can be at least more than 200 catties, and the meat is thick, the fragrance is attractive, and it is very delicious. But wild boars are fierce and intelligent, making them difficult to hunt. Before the liberation, people often went up to the mountains to hunt wild boars with clips and nets, but after the liberation, the people under the mountains were busy working in the fields and fields all day long, and no one went up the mountains to hunt wild boars anymore.

However, I had neither a trap nor a net to hunt wild boars. I just wanted to dig a trap to catch the boar. So, I dug a pit one meter square and one meter deep in the sweet potato field near the stream. In order not to be noticed by the wild boars, I carried all the dirt to the sand and gravel by the stream. Then, cover it with some thin twigs and leaves, sprinkle some dirt to camouflage, and put some small sweet potatoes on top as bait.

However, for several days, no wild boar came. Those little sweet potatoes are still on top. I just kept waiting. One night, when the black tiger was screaming, I put on my clothes, held a flashlight, and walked towards the ground with a machete. I saw that seven or eight wild boars had entered the sweet potato field and were coaxing the sweet potatoes in the field with their mouths. I whistled hard and chased after him. When the boar saw me coming, he was so frightened that he ran towards the woods. Driving away the wild boars, I looked at the trap, and it was still like that.

Because the sweet potatoes have grown, wild boars have been harassing them at night for the past few days, but the trap is still like that. This made me feel a little discouraged, and I thought that the wild boar was so clever that it seemed to know that there was a trap there, and it would not go there. This worries me very much, because I am about to dig sweet potatoes, and after digging sweet potatoes, wild boars will not come back to the sweet potato fields. The trap I dug was useless. But what bothers me the most is that if I can't catch the wild boar, Xiugu's nutrition after giving birth will be unreliable, and without these nutrients, Xiugu's body is easy to fall into trouble.

That morning, I went to the field to dig sweet potatoes, but I saw from afar that the trap had collapsed. I hurried towards that side, and before I could get to it, I heard the sound of humming and eating in the pit. I went to the edge of the pit and looked down, and there was a big wild boar humming and eating at the bottom of the pit, and struggling to jump up the pit. However, the pit was too deep, and the space inside was too small, and the whole wild boar was crowded in it, and there was no strength to make it.

I was overjoyed, but I didn't know how to pull it out of the pit. I tried to wrap a rope around its hind legs and drag it up, but I knew that the boar's teeth were so sharp that it could easily break the rope. So I went back to the house, found a sharp knife and a wooden root, attached it firmly to the root, and stabbed it into its neck. However, the boar's neck was only bleeding, but it was not pierced. At this time, the wild boar went berserk and spun wildly in the pit. I saw the timing and thrust the knife into its neck with a little more force. The wild boar went berserk in pain. I pulled the knife out of its neck with all the most force. Then a stream of blood spurted out, splashing blood all around the pit.

I stood on the edge of the pit and watched, and after a long time the boar bled too much, and its strength slowly weakened, and at last it collapsed dying, panting and rolling its eyes. At this time, Xiu Gu also came over with a big belly. I was overjoyed to see that I had captured such a large boar, and said that now we should have meat to eat.

The boar was bleeding all the time, and the blood soaked the pit, but the boar had not yet breathed. At this point, I made a live buckle with the rope, threw it under the pit, pulled one of its hind legs with a wooden root, put the rope on it, and began to drag it up. This wild boar is at least more than 200 catties, and it is dead and heavy, and it can't be dragged up. I had no choice but to dig a big hole in the edge of the pit with a shovel and go down to the bottom of the pit to drag up the wild boar, which had already choked its breath.

I dragged the wild boar to the flat ground in front of the house and asked Xiugu to boil the water. However, our pot is too small to boil a lot of water, and there is no large pot for water. I put the wild boar on the grass in front of the door, boiled the water pot by pot, and shaved the pig's hair piece by piece.

After the whole pig was killed, I set up a smoker out of stones and adobe in front of the door, burned the branches, and began to make bacon. Because these pork are reserved for Xiugu to eat after giving birth, if they are not smoked well, they will spoil. In those two days, Xiu Gu sat in front of the smoker in front of the house all day and was busy smoking meat. When the meat is smoked, it is hung in a windy place under the eaves to dry.

In this way, before Xiu Gu gave birth, all the things that should be prepared were prepared. ”