The door of Qi Shufang's house was open, and the people outside walked in smoothly, and when they saw the steaming fish on the table, a trace of surprise flashed in their eyes, and then they said apologetically: "Oh, Shufang, did you delay your dinner?"

"It's okay, it's okay. Sister Wu, do you have something to do here? Do you want to eat something together?" The young woman in front of her is named Shen Yaowu, twenty-one years old this year, and unmarried. The Shen family is also the surname of the Helou team, ninety percent of the members of the two production teams are surnamed Shen, and most of the members of the remaining eight production teams are surnamed Zhan, and the rest are surnamed He.

However, Shen Yaowu's family does not have many production teams surnamed Shen, but He Jianguo, who is the No. 9 team of He Lou with the surname He, and Shen Yaowu's father, Shen Erdan, is the captain of their production team.

Shen Yaowu was not originally called Shen Yaowu, her name was Shen Binbin.

Why did it change to Shen Yaowu?

The reason starts from the beginning of this catastrophe, the capital set up a revolutionary teacher and student representative council, the vice chairman is surnamed Song, also called Binbin, his father is an official, this girl surnamed Song is famous all over the country because of a photo of a leader surnamed Mao wearing a red armband, I heard that the leader asked her name at that time, and learned that it was a polite and polite Binbin, so she said that she wanted to be martial, so she changed her name to Wu.

After Shen Binbin saw the news in the newspaper, he also changed his name and became Shen Yaowu. Like the original body, she is also a junior Chinese Cheng dù, speaking of which is still Qi Shufang's classmate, and is currently a Chinese teacher at Helou Primary School.

After Qi Shufang got married, she and Shen Yaowu were quite good friends and often corresponded.

After recalling, Qi Shufang felt that this frequent exchange was very watery, she had been over for more than ten days, and it was just the beginning of the first month of the New Year, and every family was at home, but she had never seen Shen Yaowu.

And Shen Yaowu listened to Qi Shufang's words, glanced at the fish, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and didn't push the boat down the river after all, "No, you eat it while it's hot, I ate it over there, and the wild boar bones are stewed with cabbage, the taste is really fragrant, it's all stained with your light." When I arrived, the captain and the branch secretary had already taken the wild boar meat to the supply and marketing cooperatives on bicycles. ”

"You're here, how can I eat it in front of you? Qi Shufang muttered in her heart, although every member of the local club didn't care about the neighbors visiting the door and ate by themselves, she couldn't do it, and said with a smile on her face: "I'm not busy." What are you looking for me for?"

Shen Yaowu thought about it, his face turned red, and he said in a low voice: "I want to ask you to borrow a piece of clothing." ”

Borrowing clothes? Qi Shufang felt a thrill in her heart, didn't she come to borrow a woolen coat? She was reluctant, thinking so in her heart, she asked in her mouth: "I don't know what clothes Sister Wu wants to borrow? Except for the clothes that Jianguo sent me, everything else is fine." ”

Shen Yaowu smiled and said: "Your woolen coat is new, how dare I borrow it? I'm afraid that it will be worn out for you, and I can't afford to pay for it." My dad has a camel hair coat that he cherishes like a baby, and he doesn't even let me touch it. Don't you have an army-green gown? I want to ask you to borrow that gown, so that you can wear it when you go out tomorrow. ”

It's not like I'm here to borrow a woolen coat, Qi Shufang put her mind at ease first.

Seeing Shen Yaowu's face flushed, Qi Shufang suddenly remembered the gossip of a neighbor and a woman when dealing with wild boars today, saying that she would take Shen Yaowu to meet tomorrow, that is, she came to borrow clothes to wear on a blind date tomorrow. Shen Yaowu has many brothers and sisters, his family background is thin if he has good ingredients, and his living conditions are far worse than those of the He family, and he doesn't even have a piece of clothing without patches, so it's no wonder he came to ask himself to borrow it.

At this time, the members of the club are generally lean, and there are almost no people who make fortunes, Shen Yaowu and Qi Shufang are similar in stature, that is, they are two or three fingers shorter than Qi Shufang, and she can indeed wear Qi Shufang's clothes.

Qi Shufang opened the wardrobe and took out the army green smock and handed it to her, and said: "Now that the weather is getting hotter, you will wear a cotton jacket and a gown tomorrow? Isn't that hot?"

Shen Yaowu took the clothes, caressed them lovingly for a moment, and said with a smile: "Which of the vast number of poor people does not only have two sets of clothes with a single cotton? The cotton jacket must be worn until the weather is too hot to be hot, otherwise the single coat will have to freeze to death." This weather is only in the first month, and it is not too hot, how can it be like you and my dad, just change into a coat when it is warm. ”

Qi Shufang suddenly realized.

She remembered, most people are like this, there are two sets of clothes with single cotton, in fact, many people don't even have cotton clothes, the so-called two sets of single cotton are actually one set, inside cotton jacket cotton pants, outside gown and pants, patches stack patches, late autumn and winter and early spring wear cotton jacket cotton pants, covered with gowns and pants, when the weather is hot, take off the cotton jacket and cotton pants and wear only pants and gowns.

Cotton jackets and pants can't be taken off in weather like early spring and late autumn, just like Shen Yaowu said, wearing single clothes will freeze to death, and no one can bear it, so even if the spring is very warm, the weather has to be so hot that it can't be hot anymore, and you really can't wear cotton jackets and pants before taking them off. Even then, it would still be cold with pants and gowns alone, but there was no way around it.

Qi Shufang has three sets of clothes, one in spring, one in spring and one in winter and one in winter and summer, no, there are two padded jackets in winter, and now there is a tweed coat worn in early spring and late autumn, which is really a very happy thing.

Looking at it this way, the He family's background is really not thin, which is very surprising.

It always feels a little strange that the poor peasant component is not as poor as other families, but if it is said that the ancestors are rich, it is unlikely, because they will be classified as poor middle peasants or middle peasants, and the composition is not as good as that of poor peasants.

Seeing off Shen Yaowu, who was grateful for a thousand thanks, Qi Shufang finished eating, and before she had time to re-hang the dried game in the box, her second sister-in-law Zhang Cuihua came to visit the door, with a smile on her face, she asked this doubt in her heart, the original body did not ask, but she was very curious, everything is good in her heart!

Although she is also calculating and calculating, Zhang Cuihua's personality is a little better than Wang Chunling, and when she sees Qi Shufang's coat and watch, she will be envious, but not jealous.

Hearing Qi Shufang's question, Zhang Cuihua suddenly smiled and said, "You've only been married for a year, no wonder you don't know." ”

She whispered: "Saying that the ancestors of the eight generations are poor peasants, it is all coaxing, just for the ingredients." Besides, who can remember what happened to our ancestors three generations ago, plus decades of war? Who can know what? I heard my father-in-law say that our ancestors had a generation that was very rich, and of course this rich person was relatively poor people, that is, the family had a lot of land and a high income, and it was not a big rich and expensive one. I can't remember which generation of ancestors built the house here, built five mud houses, and pulled a large adobe courtyard, do you know what the walls of the main house were built on?"

"What kind of brick?" Qi Shufang asked with great interest, "Is it using gold and silver bricks, or can you dig three feet into the ground to dig up the treasures left by the ancestors?" she asked according to her normal thinking.

"How can there be gold and silver bricks, look at your beauty. Zhang Cuihua couldn't help but smile, "I sue you for using chestnut powder!"

"Chestnut powder? Is it the chestnut of chestnut?" Qi Shufang's eyes widened, what kind of material is this? This chestnut powder can build a wall? She became more and more curious about the He family.

"Yes, it's the chestnut powder. Zhang Cuihua's face was full of gratitude, "The ancestors had chestnut powder and face walls, which were used the same as clay, and the five rooms were all made of chestnut powder, which looked similar to mud walls." Before his death, the ancestor told his children and grandchildren that the family's family business and things could be sold no matter what, but this house could not be sold. The ancestors after this old ancestor deeply remembered this sentence, passed it on from generation to generation, and I don't know how many generations it has been, anyway, our family is getting poorer and poorer in the following generations, so let's fight!"

Qi Shufang nodded, and quickly asked, "What happened later?"

"Later," Zhang Cuihua sighed and said, "When it came to our father, the house was still there, but I didn't know that the wall was made of chestnut powder, so many generations, who remembers? Didn't there be a famine for several years 10 years ago? I don't know how many people died of starvation in my neighborhood. We are actually very good here, there are no starving people in the whole village like Henan, and our people are also very hungry, and they are about to be desperate to escape from the famine and ask for food. ”

"At that time, I didn't know that it was a wall made of chestnut powder, so he did this? Could it be that mud can be eaten?" Qi Shufang exclaimed when she heard this, "Are you hungry like this?"

Zhang Cuihua said with a smile: "What is it to eat mud? People are very hungry, the bark and grass roots of Guanyin soil, why haven't you eaten it? How many people have died after eating Guanyin soil? I can't count them, in those years of famine, the bark and grass roots are gone." At that time, Jianguo ate the soil on the wall and felt that it was not soil, like the chestnut powder bun he had eaten when he was a child, and he quickly sued our father and mother. Only then did our father understand why our ancestors told us that they could sell anything, but they couldn't sell the house, because this wall was full of chestnut powder! It was edible, and it could save lives in times of famine! So in those years, others starved to death, and those who fled the famine to ask for food, and our old He family leaned on the chestnut powder wall, and all of them survived, which is also the reason why the uncle's family was respectful to our father, because our family had a life-saving grace for them. ”

Counting the number of uncles and cousins, which family is a big family, and there is also a cousin's family, Qi Shufang asked: "So many people, the walls of five rooms are enough to eat?"

"Why is there not enough to eat? Our old He family ate secretly, scraping chestnut powder from the inner wall, and I couldn't see it from the outside, and I didn't dare to eat and drink, and I had a ration every day, and I didn't finish eating until the end of the famine. In the old days, when we built a wall, how thick was the wall? It wasn't as thin as the wall is now, but it was almost the same as the white cloth ruler we use now. Because there is chestnut flour as the base, there is a surplus of grain harvested later, and our father exchanged the grain for two homesteads, that is, our family and your family. Our homestead was earlier, and it cost a sack of dried sweet potatoes, and your family's later was more expensive, probably spending a basket of wheat. ”

The white cloth ruler is an old weights and measures, about fifty or sixty centimeters, it is indeed thick enough, the ancestor of the He family, it is really prescient!

Qi Shufang was so impressed that she threw herself to the ground, and at this moment, Zhang Cuihua asked: "When I came just now, I met Yaowu, she said to ask you about the clothes you borrowed, and I will meet at the third uncle's house tomorrow, and the third aunt introduced the object, do you want to go and see it?"

"I won't go, I want to go into the mountains tomorrow to see what game I can catch, I sold it and saved two pocket money, and I can't rely on Jianguo to send me money every day." He bought me this coat and watch, and I went through a lot of famine. Qi Shufang thought about it, but still refused, she wanted to try her luck in the mountains, there are two wild boars, there are three or four, and she can sell hundreds of them in a year, she secretly fights, secretly handles, secretly sells, saves some money to build a house, and can't hide things every day when people come.