During this period, every family worked hard to raise pigs with wild vegetables, and the pigs were all raised like wild boars, and they could grow to more than 120 catties of gross weight in a year. If you raise a head, you must raise it to the state, and you can get 30 yuan, which may be all the cash that a family has for a year; Raise two heads, raise one, you can kill one for the New Year, more than 70 catties of meat for a family (generally seven or eight people) to eat for 12 months, but can kill the New Year's pig family, ten families are only one to two. Even if you can kill the New Year's pig, it is necessary to smoke the more than 70 catties of meat with belt bones into bacon with fire.

Every year from around the Spring Festival to the autumn harvest, it is not strange that two or three months have not eaten a meal of white rice and tasted the smell of meat, and it is strange that children (in fact, adults are the same) are not hungry, but adults seem to be like the swallows mentioned at the beginning, preferring to starve themselves, but also to take care of the children who can grow up as long as there is food and water.

Let's get back to the point. The reason why this lunch meal is so simple is that the big bowl and plate of more than 20 essential dishes are packed into three or four large bamboo baskets, and everyone can enjoy them only after they are taken to the mountain to worship the ancestors. The process of going to the grave, in this piece of land in China, whether it is the south of the world, the north of the river, the east and the west of the river, in fact, are all the same, close your eyes can imagine, there is a team of large and small family members to do their best, carrying backpacks, carrying baskets, holding knives, carrying shovels, mighty and mighty to everywhere there are ancestors resting place. The sacrificial rituals in each place are exactly the same, and they will never be close to one over the other - cleaning the sundries, inserting signs, hanging flags, setting up banquets, pouring wine, paying tribute to rice, pouring tea, lighting incense, lighting candles, burning paper, lining up to kowtow, firing guns, and eliminating the hidden dangers of Mars; After the sacrifice of the ancestors in the last place, the pious laborers set up a table on the grave mountain for their own enjoyment, although the adults and children sat on the ground, but they were extremely free, and the food and drink were all cold dishes and cold bowls, but everything provoked people's appetite.

This year, in order to take care of my father and rush back to the school site as soon as possible, I specially divided the troops into two ways at the same time, and the progress was very fast, and I met at the last cemetery agreed before 5 o'clock in the afternoon. After the sacrifice, my father hurriedly ate something, called me to the side to explain, said hello to everyone, and trotted towards the direction of Wangyueling-Siyuan Middle School.

As soon as the father left, the children of the club immediately came alive, as if everyone had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Ge Mengke, a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl's family, forgot that a lady is elegant and virtuous, leaned forward as much as she could, stretched out her hand to put the dish in the distance, and said happily: "Ah, our family's 'Tiger of Zhenshan' has finally left, everyone is welcome, let go of the belly and eat!" ”

Ge Xiaofeng will never lose in the fight for food, but he is the eldest in the family, and he has to carry the banner of presiding over justice at all times, no, as soon as he saw that someone was presumptuous, he immediately responded in a shocking tone: "Mengke, do you wish Uncle Mi was not there when you eat?!" ”

"Humph!" Ge Mengke snorted, not to be outdone, and fought back: "Where do I mean this?" Think so badly of people. Anyway, Uncle Mi is here, everyone is pretending to be serious, isn't this an elephant on the farm and a pig farm? "Saying this, it was like a bamboo pole sweeping a long list, which immediately aroused public indignation, six or seven mouths were like six or seven cannons, all of them bombarded Ge Mengke, if it weren't for her quick reaction and fast speech, she wouldn't have been able to turn things around in this passive situation." All of you still don't admit it, and you still have to protect the pain of the punctured pus, so why do you pretend to be a good doll and a good child as long as your uncle is present, unlike what you have now? ”

"That's because we're afraid of saying the wrong thing, so we're cautious."

"That's because we don't want to be beaten, so we listen more and talk less."

"Gotcha, gotcha." Ge Meng interrupted the crowd in a hurry. "Uncle Mi has a kind face, speaks softly, and it is difficult to lose his temper once, do you need to be so cautious when you say something?"

"What you say is the truth, but if Uncle Mi starts a temper, you will have no taste for three days of eating!"

"How so?" Ge Mengke probably agreed with this, and his tone was lowered. Ge Xiaofeng replied angrily, "It's not simple? After swallowing the food in his mouth completely, he continued: "Uncle Mi can always hold the vital point of a person, like holding the seven inches of a snake, you can't move if you want to, let alone resist." ”

At this time, the second uncle took a big sip of wine, looked very uncomfortable, and interjected half-jokingly: "What about me and the uncle, we are easy to bully?" ”

Ge Xiaofeng reacted, and it was very inconsiderate to say "resistance" on such an occasion, but the words were out and could not be recovered, so he squeaked for a long time. Ge Mengke's "ah", as if he had discovered a new continent, led everyone's attention to a new perspective: "Hai Liu, why do you keep muffling and don't speak?" I also knew this intention, so I flattered and said, "I am thinking, the eldest uncle and the second uncle are like shepherds, and we are like a flock of sheep, and of course the sheep are most afraid of the shepherd's whip." ”

When the second uncle heard this, he immediately piled up all the joy on his face, and said happily, "It's about the same." He drank a large glass of wine, and then asked while mixing vegetables: "Then what is Uncle Mi like?" ”

"Daddy," I said, "like a door, the door of the sheepfold." As soon as the sheep enter this door, the shepherd is relieved! ”

It's just such a simple question and answer, that is, to make the young and old happy. In any case, at this point, the "tiger" or "gecko" of the family left, and the children's free will seemed to be absolutely free. After the feast, six or seven children herded sheep like fish in water, and all ran to the nearby wheat field, who I don't know, to pick big and tender peas and broad beans. Peas are the kind with safflowers, the pods are thin and flattened, green like jade, very fleshy, and very sweet. Like my older siblings, I eat while picking.

When everyone was picking and eating, there was an uncle of medium height in his forties, with unkempt hair, a full face of hair, dressed in black, wearing straw sandals, and carrying a tea stick more than four feet long. If you dare to steal my beans, you will stand for Lao Tzu! Hearing this almost angry shouting, it was repaid, and a few children who were thieves first instinctively squatted down, and stood up again because they couldn't hide. Ge Xiaofeng and a few other older people stood up at the moment, and they ran to a small mound not far away like a frightened bird.

"Which family are you? Why do you steal beans from the field? The uncle asked with a straight face, but his tone was much calmer.

The fourth brother and the second sister were silent. I had the courage to reply tentatively: "Uncle, we didn't steal your beans, we just picked a little, you see (the broad beans that show the pocket of the jacket)." ”

"I dare to say that I didn't steal it, I can see it clearly!"

"Uncle is standing on the edge of the ground and can see clearly, my fourth brother and second sister are picking peas and broad beans, we will give it to you."

"Take it all out first, it's just a robbery!"

"I can't take it out, uncle, you can see it, we don't dare to pick beans and rob people."

"I can't take it all out, what's the reason?"

"Uncle, what you said is that we ate all those peas when we picked them, and only these broad beans remained."

"Which kid are you?"

"Uncle, this ...... Can't tell you unless ......"

"Slurred. Unless what? ”

"We didn't take out the broad beans in our pockets, so we had to go back and explain to our parents."

"What's the explanation for that? Can't you explain it without broad beans? ”

"That's the case, we pick beans in your uncle's field, and you reward us with a small bag for each person, so our parents won't blame us for sneaking out to play."

"Little devil, well, even if the beans are given to you, I don't know whose family this land is; Remember, in the future, you can use your little ghost on the right path! ”

Thank you, uncle, my fourth brother and second sister and I happily ran to the mound not far away, first complaining angrily that Ge Xiaofeng and they escaped from the battle, did not save them when they saw death, and were too uninteresting, and then they pulled out the thatched needles, cut thistles, and pry bitterness on the mound. The eldest uncle and the second uncle stood in the distance and greeted several times, "Ghost dolls, hurry up and come back and leave, it's not too early!" But the people seemed to be deaf to their own business, and they were busy with their own business.

After tossing back and forth for about an hour, everyone had made enough spoils of war before they returned to the place where they had eaten. And each did his best, taking what he carried, carrying what he carried, carrying what he carried, and carrying it, and after the uncle and the second uncle had already packed up the classified tableware and items, they talked and laughed, and you chased me and embarked on the way home.