August 30 is the mid-year festival of the lunar calendar, which is also known as the Ghost Festival.

On this day, Gu's mother got up very early, and she steamed two pieces of pork the size of a jade seal in the kitchen, which was the pork butt meat she specially bought at the supply and marketing cooperatives yesterday, with four-inch thick fat and one-inch thick lean meat, which looked very good.

The two pieces of meat were put on a plate and placed on the stove, and she took out two empty plates and filled them with two pieces of fresh tofu.

The tofu was bought from Lao Chen's house on the street, two cents and five pounds, which was five cents more expensive than in the first month.

Two pieces of tofu, boxy, cost a total of one dollar, one dollar can buy seven or eight catties of soybeans, if it weren't for the fifty that the baby brought back from the county a while ago, she would definitely be reluctant to buy it.

Under the stove, there is a clean back basket.

In the basket was a thick pile of fire paper, two hearts of rosin, two red firecrackers with 1,000 rings, a hoe for blocking the grave, and pork and tofu as sacrifices.

After cleaning up, Gu's mother lifted the back basket to the eaves.

"Dawa, are you done eating?"

Gu Yong sat on the door pier to eat, and when he heard the shouting, he quickly took a few bites of rice, lit up the bottom of the bowl, puffed out his cheeks and said, "Grandma, I'm done!"

"What are you doing, be careful of choking you!"

Gu's mother glared at her stupid son with disgust, she poured a small half bowl of noodle soup from the basin, and waited for Gu Yong to drink it, before pointing to the back basket and saying, "Big baby, carry this on your back, today's Midyear Festival, let's go to the back mountain to see your grandpa and abba!"

"Brother isn't there?"

"Brother didn't catch up, let's go again after the New Year!"

"Oh!"

Gu Yong smirked a few times, put on the small bamboo basket on his back, and walked behind Gu's mother towards the back mountain.

There are two mountains in the back mountain of Gujia, one mountain blocks the town and the county seat of Qiushan, called Green Ridge, and there is a mountain ridge with an altitude of less than 800 meters on the side of Green Ridge.

This low ridge has no name, it is called the back backbone.

The Green Ridge Mountain is too high and the woods are very dense to grow crops.

After that, the backbone of the terrain was gentle, and it was cultivated in the early years, and during the period of large-scale production, the commune reclaimed hundreds of acres of dry land in the mountains.

The commune dissolved, and the Gu family also divided one acre and three points of land.

In the first half of the year, wheat was planted, and peanuts were planted in the second half of the year, and the harvest was good.

In addition to growing crops, that field also serves a purpose - a cemetery.

The Gu family is an outsider, and there is no feng shui treasure to be buried, so they can only be buried in this land of daily labor!

There are two graves on the cemetery, one is Grandpa Gu's and the other is Gu's father's.

In the early morning, the sun emerges from the mountains to the east, and the sun shines on the dense birch oak forest, waking up the silent night.

From the courtyard of the Gu family to the cemetery, there is a zigzag mountain road.

Gu's mother was weak, and she walked for half an hour to reach the halfway point of the mountain, Gu Yong was also sensible, he buried his head behind his mother, didn't speak, just followed quietly.

At this time, two more people came up on the mountain road, they were neighbors Liu Changgui and Aunt Liu, both of whom were carrying hoes and preparing to work in the fields on the mountain.

Aunt Liu looked at Gu's mother and Gu Yong empty-handed, and asked curiously, "Sister Fang, why don't you take a hoe when you go uphill?"

Gu's mother smiled: "Go to the grave and take a look." ”

"Oh!"

Aunt Liu nodded, "We went there in the morning!" She looked at Gu Yong, who was silent, and said with a smile: "Dayong, can you find a daughter-in-law?"

Gu Yong smiled and played with a green priest (scarab) with a small shovel.

Aunt Liu secretly scolded a fool, and said, "Sister Fang, let me tell you a good thing." ”

"What's the good thing?"

Aunt Liu smiled: "Do you know Wei Changhai from Xiahe Village?"

Gu's mother nodded.

"Haha, they have an eldest sister in their family, who is as big as Dayong, and looks good, moved back to her mother's house in the first half of the year, the last time I met Wei Changhai in the set, I heard him say that he wanted to find a home for the eldest sister, I mentioned Dayong's name, Wei Changhai thinks it's not bad, what do you think?"

"Wei Changhai's woman?"

Gu's mother frowned, her face was a little unsightly, I heard that the women of the Wei family were not serious, they hooked up with each other, her husband died for a year and gave birth to a baby, her father-in-law's family lost face, and ruthlessly drove her back to her parents' house, how could this kind of woman want it?

"Sister Liu, this is the situation in my house, where is the money to marry a daughter-in-law for the eldest baby, wait for the house to improve in two years. ”

Aunt Liu saw that Gu's mother's face was not good, and persuaded: "Sister Fang, don't listen to some people's nonsense, I have seen the women of the Wei family, they are delicate and well-behaved." ”

Gu's mother said perfunctorily: "I know, it's just that the family is not rich, and I will wait for two years." ”

Seeing that Gu's mother didn't let go, Aunt Liu didn't persuade again, changed the topic, and talked about other things.

"The sun is coming out, don't be verbose!"

Aunt Liu's man, Liu Changgui, called out in front.

"What are you shouting, you won't go to the field first? A big man can't even do that little work? I'm such a hard worker, I'm so busy in the house and busy on the slope all day, tired and tired, I shouldn't have followed you back then..."

Aunt Liu had a black face and scolded for a while, but Liu Changgui didn't dare to say a word.

Aunt Liu felt bored, so she said goodbye to Gu's mother and walked up the mountain in high spirits, and after a while, there was a spicy sound in front of her.

Gu's mother and Gu Yong also walked to the cemetery when the sun rose.

Gu Yong put down the back basket, and Gu's mother took out pork and tofu and put them in front of Grandpa Gu and Gu's father's graves.

Gu Yong set off firecrackers, and Gu's mother squatted in front of the two graves to burn paper and incense, quietly talking about the changes in the family.

"His grandfather and his father, you can all rest assured, Miwa is very sensible, Dayong is also very obedient, both of them are filial piety... The baby will still feel sorry for people, and a few days ago I gave me fifty yuan, telling me to eat as well as possible, and not to work in the mountains.... I'm not in good health, I wasn't worried about the two of them, but now that I see that the baby is sensible, I will be blinded even if I die..."

Gu's mother said softly, Gu Yong took a hoe to weed in the cemetery and repair the ditch, the Gu family's cemetery is on a slope, the location is not good, heavy rain in summer will wash away the soil on the grave, the Gu family will come to the grave every year to prevent soil erosion.

Unconsciously, the sun rose, and the sun shone on the cemetery, through the pine trees in front of the grave, drying the tears on Gu's mother's face.

Gu's mother wiped away her tears, looked at the neat cemetery, and smiled with relief.

On the way back, Gu's mother found that there were a few gastrodia vines growing in the mountains and forests under the road, and she was overjoyed, so she took Gu Yong to dig gastrodia in the forest.

......

At noon, Gu Meng came back from the county and happened to meet his mother and brother coming down the road with a backpack.

He looked at the medicinal herbs in the basket and persuaded: "Grandma, you are not in good health, don't go up the mountain again in the future, my brother and I have grown up, what do we do, we can support our family!"

"Haha, pick it up by the way, don't dig it for nothing!"

The son's words were very intimate, and Gu's mother laughed happily.

Back in the house, he took two sets of new clothes and shoes from the back basket, one for his brother, one for his grandmother, as well as malt milk essence and bone strengthening powder.

"Why do you buy so many things?" Gu's mother looked at the things on the table and was shocked, this is a lot of money, right?

"Haha, Grandma, there's more!"

Gu Meng took out a pile of gross stamps from his pocket again, there were hundreds of yuan, and he kept more than 600 whole money to buy gastrodia, as for those meat stamps and food stamps, he sold them, and he couldn't use them when he got them back.

"Miwa, is this the money you earned from selling kitchen knives?" Gu's mother was worried that the money was not coming from the right way.

"Grandma, not all, do you see which shoes are in the back basket?"

These days, a total of more than 200 pairs were made, and dozens of pairs were picked and leftover, and he carried them back to sell them in the town, and other tools for making shoes, as well as some soles and cowhide and sheepskin, he also carried them back, ready to start work at home.

He saw that his mother was a little nervous, and carefully told his mother about the shoe business.

"How do you know how to make shoes?"

"Grandma, didn't I invite a master?"

"Oh, your shoes sell so well?"

Gu Meng nodded, "Grandma, I sell all good shoes, both sturdy and beautiful, only sold for a few yuan, everyone rushed to buy them!"

Gu's mother was skeptical, and she was still a little uneasy, but in fact, what she suspected was not this business, but the son in front of her.

has raised her son for more than ten years, what kind of person her son is, she knows best, her youngest son is stubborn, introverted, and has strong self-esteem, and suddenly he has become very mature and has learned to make money, which she can't accept for a while.

"Grandma, if you don't believe it, when school is about to start, I'll sell you shoes, these more than 30 pairs of shoes, don't sell out in one day. ”

"Good!"

Gu's mother wiped her eyes, it was not easy to pull two children by herself, but now she can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Gu Meng sighed and helped his mother to sit down on the chair, "Grandma, these supplements don't have a long shelf life, you remember to eat them every day, and they will be ruined when they expire." ”

The mother's illness was mainly poor and heartfelt.

Poverty is a lack of nutrition, as long as you eat more tonics, meat, slowly raise, and when you have money in the future, you will find a chance to go to a big hospital to see, hoping that your mother can live a long life.

and all the things that have gone wrong in the Gu family over the years have caused her to be depressed and fall into heart disease.

The disease is not difficult to cure.

As long as he works hard to earn money in the future, works hard to become a talent, and does more long-faced things to win glory for his ancestors, the depression in his mother's heart will slowly dissipate.

Everything has to be done slowly.

He was worried that his mother would be reluctant to spend money, and persuaded him: "My brother and I are still growing and need nutrition, and with meat tickets, the family will eat more meat in the future, and the family will be healthy." ”

Gu's mother shook her head, "Money is hard to earn, you can't spend it indiscriminately, I'll save it for you to study and marry a daughter-in-law." ”

"Grandma, don't worry, with the plane tree, are you afraid that there will be no phoenix coming? Don't worry, my brother and I will have a daughter-in-law in the future, and there will be a litter of children, seven or eight or ten grandchildren will surround you and call grandma, don't be annoyed by your mother-in-law when the time comes!"

Gu's mother laughed again, I don't know if it was because of his words, or if she imagined such a happy scene.

"Miwa, who did you learn from, you are only sixteen years old and thinking about children!"

"Grandma, I'm taking precautions, I'm worried that you're not in good health and won't be able to hold your eldest grandson. ”

"Haha, for the sake of the eldest grandson, I will eat well in the future!"

Gu Meng was worried about his mother's savings, so he took some money and went to the town's supply and marketing cooperatives to buy meat.

Now that the amount of food is large, the daily consumption is large.

No meat, no joy!