Qingshan County is fifty miles away from Liushugou Village, and the three grandparents and grandchildren are carrying two big burdens, carrying a bag of dried sweet potatoes, and most of the cardboard boxes of meals, and they can't walk after walking for ten miles.

They got off the train at three o'clock, and they were not halfway to the end of the road when it was almost dark. One is old and the other is weak, and Zhou Xiaoan, a wounded man who is too weak to do anything, can't get home in the middle of the night if he grinds like this.

The second uncle deserves to be the patriarch for 20 years and the captain of the production team for more than 10 years, which really let the sisters and brothers see his connections once.

Passing by a village, he went in, and after a while he borrowed a carriage, and when he saw that he had brought two children, he deliberately spread a thick layer of hay on the car, and the three of them climbed into the carriage, and the road was bumpy and bumpy, and it took more than an hour to reach the willow ditch.

Zhou Xiaoan got out of the car half-asleep, entered the house with one foot deep and one foot shallow, didn't see anything clearly, explained a few words to Zhou Xiaoquan, and when he closed his eyes on the quilt, he didn't know anything.

When it was dawn the next day, Zhou Xiaoan was woken up by a noisy and loud tweeter, "...... After the revolutionary Spring Festival, change customs, break the old and establish the new, do not take holidays, do not pay New Year's greetings, actively participate in production and labor, and make a good start for next year's summer grain harvest......"

Zhou Xiaoan listened stunned for a long time before she reacted, she crossed over, ran to the countryside, today is Chinese New Year's Eve.

"Sister, go back to sleep, the second uncle went to the brigade canteen to cook, and said to bring the food back for us to eat." Zhou Xiaoquan had already dressed and gone out for a spin, and when he entered the house, he saw that his sister's eyes were black in a daze, so he tucked the quilt for her, and pressed his own quilt on her body.

Zhou Xiaoan was already sick, and after tossing all the way yesterday, his body was so sore that he didn't need to help cook, so he fell asleep again with his head tilted.

When I woke up again, it was already dawn, and the room was quiet, only the sound of Zhou Xiaoquan sitting on the kang and flipping a book.

The sister and brother discussed it on the way, and Zhou Xiaoquan can't be stupid when he comes to the countryside, he must read well, and he has to teach his sister to read and write when he has time.

The kang was hot, and the quilt on his body was warm, Zhou Xiao'an rolled his eyes comfortably, lazy in the quilt and didn't want to get up.

Zhou Xiaoquan quickly went to bring her face water, and skillfully wrung a hot towel to wipe her sister's face.

Zhou Xiaoan's right bone crack is not serious, and his face can still be wiped by himself, so he has to get up and wash himself.

Zhou Xiaoquan is used to working at home, and he knows how to jump on the kang and fold the quilt neatly and cover it with a sheet without human support.

"Move to the cupboard." Zhou Xiaoan didn't dare to put the new army's new sheets on the kang so blatantly for people to see.

The second uncle's house has three mud and straw houses, the middle door is open, the east and west rooms are occupied, the middle one is used as a kitchen, and the two sons are separated, and there are only their old couple and their eighty-year-old wife in the family.

Afraid of cold in winter, and there is not much firewood, the three old people live in the north and south kang of the east house, their sister and brother came, and the second uncle and mother-in-law were afraid that the children in the city would not be used to living with their old people, so they heated the kang in the west house and let their sisters and brothers live alone.

But in this era, there is no privacy in the cities, let alone the countryside. It's too normal for a villager to come and see the futon on the kang and flip it over, and then she will have to tell one lie after another, and it is better to hide it all so that no one can see it.

After cleaning up, Zhou Xiaoquan came in with a black clay jar and two coarse porcelain bowls, "Second uncle, they have all eaten, these are ours, I asked the second uncle to warm a noodle for my wife in the morning, and two steamed buns are baked on the stove, I will eat them for you later." ”

Zhou Xiaoan nodded, very happy about his brother's sensibility, "One for each of us with steamed buns, what are you doing so early?" ”

Without waiting for Zhou Xiaoquan to answer, she first became curious about the bowl of black soup poured out of the clay jar, "What is this?" It tastes so weird. ”

"Corn pulp, elm bark, and grass roots crushed the porridge, and the second uncle said that two handfuls of dried sweet potatoes and bran were added." The dried sweet potatoes and bran were all brought by their sister and brother, and there was no food in this porridge before.

"The strong laborers who repair the terraces can still share a nest at noon and at night, and they only eat two meals a day when they don't work, and they are all like this." Zhou Xiaoquan went out early in the morning and took a turn, and he had already touched the basic situation in the village.

Liushugou Village is the location of the brigade headquarters, and nearly 3,000 people from the eight production teams of the brigade are eating in the big canteen of the brigade, and the farthest is nearly ten miles away from here, "Sister, you said that you just drink such a bowl of porridge, can you support walking ten miles?" ”

Of course, I can't hold on, so many people come at noon to bring back all the day's meals and only eat one meal a day.

With the experience of eating bran dumplings last time, Zhou Xiaoan picked up the porridge bowl and took a sip carefully.

The taste is so weird! The facial features were almost wrinkled together, and the scum in the mouth still couldn't be swallowed. Zhou Xiaoan was ruthless, swallowed it hard, and choked and coughed.

Zhou Xiaoquan hurriedly brought her water, this child has a lot of adaptability than Zhou Xiao'an from snacks of all kinds of vegetable dumplings and bran porridge, although he feels unpalatable, he will not choke himself.

"Sister, don't eat this, you can eat all the steamed buns."

Zhou Xiaoan shook his head, poured more water into the bowl, and drank most of the bowl with his breath.

Everything is getting used to, just go through it a few more times, and now that she's here, she has to learn to adapt.

After the sister and brother finished eating, they began to plan their lives for the next half a month.

The second uncle of the dried sweet potatoes they brought left five catties of cooked ones for the old people and children, and handed over the rest to the big canteen. These things are eaten by the standard of the cafeteria for more than 10 people for a month, so there is no need to worry about eating.

The fine grain bought on the train and the buns brought by Zhou Xiaoan let the second uncle and mother-in-law freeze outside last night, keeping the family for the tooth sacrifice on Chinese New Year's Eve and New Year.

Zhou Xiaoan secretly brought some more inside, and it should be no problem for the five of them plus a few grandsons and granddaughters of the second uncle to eat three or five meals.

"I'll read at home in the morning, and I'll pick up firewood in the afternoon, we don't have a stove in this house, so we have to heat the kang up, or you won't be able to recover from your illness." I asked my second uncle, two miles outside the village is a hill, last year there was a drought, there were a lot of dead trees, it is convenient to cut firewood. ”

Zhou Xiaoquan is a thoughtful child, turn around and find that the firewood stacks are very small, first, everyone eats in the big canteen, not so much, second, and the most important, the strong labor force is pulled to repair the terraces, and the remaining old, weak, sick and disabled at home are so hungry that they can't cut firewood at all.

He didn't want his sister to be frozen, let alone take advantage of the three old men, so he had already planned to go to collect firewood by himself.

"The second uncle and mother-in-law went to the production team compound to spin threads, and the women in the village who did not go to the construction site went to work there, and they did not rest during the New Year, and they had to celebrate the revolutionary Spring Festival. When you're better, I'll take you to see the excitement, hundreds of spinning wheels are spinning there, it's fun! ”

Zhou Xiaoquan planned with great interest for a long time, and looked at his sister with dark eyes, "Sister, don't worry!" I can take care of you! ”