When the three siblings came out of dinner, they could hear the noise in the playground of the elementary school from a distance. Several people from nearby Tunzi came, crowds of people, and the hustle and bustle, and the song of Liu Sanjie's "Chopping Firewood Over the Ridge and Over the Slope" floated loudly over the entire village.

The playground was packed, and the white screens were crowded with people, and the surrounding trees were full of children.

The Zhou Yang brothers were afraid of squeezing their sister, so they stood far away, so they listened to half of the movie.

When the movie ended, the Zhou family came back and saw the Zhou Yang brothers and they were all taken aback. These two dead children are not in the field looking at sweet potatoes, what are they doing when they come back? What can I do if I lose those bags of sweet potatoes?

"Two little deflated calves, you two don't have a long heart! If this sweet potato is lost, what will you two pay for! Mrs. Zhou was the first to sit still.

"It's not enough to lose the two of you if you sell it! Out of tune! Zhou Chunfa's hand lit at the brothers in the air, and he almost rushed up and kicked them.

"The third! These two kids are so out of tune! If you don't beat him again, you'll have to pay it back! Wang Fengying also shouted.

"You can't do anything! So the movie is that good? If you don't see it, you can die? Zhou Chunliang came to Zhou Yang and the brothers angrily, looking at the posture, he was going to make a move. Zhou Wanwan was held in Zhou Chen's arms, with a drug spray hidden in his hand, ready to shoot at any time.

"Daddy! Sweet potatoes can't be lost. Zhou Yang stood in front of his younger brothers and sisters, blocking the menacing Zhou Chunliang, and explained to him in a calm voice.

"Leave it to others to look at yourself? If the old Ding Tou touches the two while no one is there, who knows? Wang Fengying still didn't plan to let them go, "If you don't beat them, you don't know how to have a long memory!" ”

"Uncle is so worried, why don't you look at it?" Zhou Chen asked Wang Fengying without hesitation.

"Oh mama! It's on me! Do you talk to your elders like that? Nothing big or small! It's just a lack of beating! Wang Fengying didn't feel that he was ignoring, he felt that she was the elder of the Zhou Yang brothers, this is the truth, they have to listen to what she says.

"That's right! You have to beat it! Zhou Chunfa sat on the kang and took a dry cigarette roll from his ear, shook his head and echoed.

"Hurry up and carry the sweet potato back, it's really lost." Zhou Chunxi was even more afraid that the sweet potato would be lost, so he hurriedly reminded everyone.

"I'll clean you both up when I get back!" Zhou Chunliang pointed to the noses of the Zhou Yang brothers and left a sentence hatefully before going to the field to carry sweet potatoes.

The Zhou Yang brothers were also called.

Zhou Chunxi whispered to Zhou Ping, who was boiling water in the kitchen, before going out: "I said I'm going to get the sweet potatoes back, you have to let me, if we lose it, our family will starve next year!" ”

"Even if you don't starve, my mother and I can't eat, what are you doing when you're tired." Zhou Ping looked at the flames in the stove that were clearly extinguished and whispered.

Zhou Chun was happy to speak and stopped, and finally sighed and hurried away.

"I was expecting a lot of land to be divided this year, and there will be a little surplus next year, so if I lose it, I don't have to think about anything." Zhou Chunlai was changing his shoes in the West House, and whispered to Shen Yufen, "You shouldn't stop me, I'm better at watching than the two children." ”

"If there is a surplus, our family will still eat bran vegetables, and it may not be certain who will end up in the mouth." Shen Yufen lay down slowly, her belly was slightly bulging for five months, since her mother said that the child couldn't keep up with the food, her belly was smaller than the average five months, Shen Yufen always talked to Zhou Chunlai with a sense of resentment.

Zhou Chunlai hurriedly came over to help her lie down, stroked her hair, and walked away with her head down.

Fortunately, the Zhou family had a lot of labor, and the old man Zhou brought back several sacks of sweet potatoes with his four sons and four grandsons.

The next day, no matter what others said, the Zhou Yang brothers lived their lives as usual. Zhou Chunliang's anger dissipated in the calm eyes of the brothers, and he didn't mention beating them anymore, but he also ignored the two even more.

Mrs. Zhou and Zhou Chunfa's family have more important things to do, and they don't have the energy to clean up Zhou Yang and the others.

Zhou Juan and Zhou Hongying's faces drank the medicine of the "famous old Chinese medicine", not only did it not get better, but it became more serious. Although it was nauseous and ugly before drinking the medicine, it didn't hurt or bleed, and after drinking the extremely bitter Chinese medicine, it became serious. Pus and blood flowed uncontrollably, swelled more severely, and were accompanied by severe pain.

The tempers of the two also became more and more irritable with the severity of the condition, and the Zhou family was tormented by the two every day, and the life of the brothers and sisters in Zhou Wanwan was much better.

What makes Mrs. Zhou and others tired of coping is Zhou Ping, since Mrs. Zhou promised to wait until the autumn production team sent money and grain to divorce the old Xu family in Limakeng, Zhou Ping must ask once a day, did you tell Zhao Simao about it? How did the Xu family give a reply? How much bride price did you take? What did you do with the bride price? What if the production team has less money and food this year, and it is not up to others?

……

Mrs. Zhou couldn't be anxious with her yet, so when she was impatient, Zhou Ping didn't ask her, ran to find Zhao Sima, and said that if she didn't give her permission, she would go to the Ma Pit.

Mrs. Zhou and Wang Fengying's mother and daughter didn't expect Zhou Ping to be so difficult to deal with this time, and they were anxious and miserable every day......

No matter what the days of the Zhou family are, the solar terms and agricultural hours are still advancing step by step. After the cold dew, the last batch of corn was pulled back from the field, and the production team officially entered the field stage.

The vegetables in the garden were already harvested, and even the vegetable seedlings were dried and burned as firewood. This year, Mrs. Zhou deliberately left a few large bundles of eggplant and chili seedlings that were not burned, and she was going to send them to Qian Yan to wash her frostbite after being beaten by frost.

During this time, Zhou Hongying brought back several letters from the county seat, all of which asked the Zhou family if they had any more game.

She's having a hard time now. Since Qian Shouyi was sick, he never went to work, at first he was not in good health, and then he didn't go when he got better, saying that he couldn't stand the suffering. In order to keep an iron job in a public house, Zhou Hongxiang had to work hard day by day, looking forward to the day when the leader would be happy, and then transfer Qian Shouyi back to the county hospital for registration.

If you don't give gifts to the leaders, people can't be lucky if they are happy, Zhou Hongxiang began to count on the Zhou family's game again.

Qian Gang and Qian Tie also came before, and Zhou Fu and Zhou Jun specially asked for leave to accompany them to Xiaohan Mountain, but of course they returned empty-handed.

Now everyone in a radius of dozens of miles knows that there is prey on Xiaohan Mountain, but those who go there have returned in vain. Only one person had lassoed a rabbit, and was dragged by the rabbit to run all over the mountain, he chased desperately behind, and finally fell to the ground and bruised before he could catch it.

Now almost everyone has given up the plan to go to Xiaohan Mountain to catch game, and occasionally there are one or two who do not believe in evil and have tried various ways, but no one has succeeded so far.

After Qian Gang and they left, the Zhou Yang brothers also said two sentences to Shen Guodong, according to what he did some time ago, it is impossible to say that he has not come for such a long time. It is very likely that something has happened, and the brothers also speculated that there may be something wrong with Chief Shen's body.

Listening to the descriptions of Shen Guodong and Xiao Zhang, Chief Shen was seriously injured in the war, and now there are more than ten pieces of shrapnel in his body that cannot be retrieved, two of which are dangerous to the heart, and every time he gets sick, it is very dangerous.

A few years ago, because shrapnel compressed the large blood vessels of the heart, Chief Shen was diagnosed by the doctor that he would not live long, and he was ready to return to Sanjiatun to return to his roots. But later, I don't know what happened, the shrapnel was transferred again, and the army urgently needed Chief Shen to preside over an important project, so Chief Shen did not live in Sanjiatun permanently.

Over the years, Chief Shen's health has been good and bad, and he has slowly retired from important leadership positions in the military region. After another dangerous illness this summer, he took the initiative to ask to go to the Erlongshan Dry Rest Center for treatment, which is very close to Suilin County, where Shen Guodong went to school and had his eldest son's family to take care of, and it was only forty or fifty miles away from Sanjiatun, so it was convenient for him to come back.

Zhou Wanwan was also worried about Chief Shen, in her past life and present life, if it weren't for this old man's kind thoughts, she would have starved to death. She didn't know what year Chief Shen died, but she guessed from her memory that it should have been one or two years. Zhou Wanwan prayed in her heart, hoping that Chief Shen could survive this hurdle and give herself a chance to repay him.

By mid-October, the weather had cooled down completely, and after a few frosts, the green had largely disappeared from the northern landscape, with only a few pines and cypresses looking greener and taller.

Zhou Yang's brother and sister all changed into thick sweaters and padded shoes, and some of the clothes and shoes prepared by Zhou Wanwan for the brothers and sisters last winter were enlarged in size, preparing them to wear when they were a year older. But Zhou Wanwan didn't expect the Zhou Yang brothers to grow so much taller in a year, and those clothes were shorter.

Zhou Wanwan thought of the mothers who were smiling and complaining while changing clothes for their children, and they must have felt the same joy and pride as she is now.

Zhou Wanwan remade a batch of clothes for his brothers in the space, including this winter's cotton clothes, which were also remade, the size was enlarged, and the materials were very good, but they looked exactly the same as the original.

Of course, Zhou Xia is still wearing last year's old clothes this year, and her sweater and pants were all taken by Mrs. Zhou to give to Qian Yan, leaving only a set of single clothes and a set of cotton clothes. Zhou Wanwan looked at Zhou Xia's cotton clothes that were a little shorter, and the cuffs and trousers flew out of the cotton indifferently, life is all chosen by themselves, and everyone has to be responsible for their own choices, no matter how young they are.

Zhou Yang still felt a little sorry for Zhou Xia, but he couldn't do anything, he was a half-sized child, he didn't know anything about needlework, and Zhou Xia refused to get close to him, the eldest brother, and when he saw him, he hid, and he could only sigh and walk away.

The circle of sunflowers by the Zhou family's shoji could have been collected a long time ago, but Mrs. Zhou was so overwhelmed by Zhou Hongying and Zhou Ping that she didn't care about anything else. It wasn't until one day that she found that several sunflowers had been rubbed off a large piece of melon seeds, and she was shocked that she almost ruined something.

Mrs. Zhou hurriedly asked Zhou Chunxi to cut off all the sunflower flower plates, and then asked Zhou Xia and Zhou Ling to take a wooden stick and knock the back of the flower plate, and the ripe melon seeds fell down with a bang.

Zhou Wanwan was assigned to spread out the knocked down melon seeds to dry, this kind of work Zhou Wanwan did not do less this autumn, and when she dried sweet potatoes a few days earlier, she was assigned to put sweet potato pieces.

The more than 1,000 catties of sweet potatoes distributed by the Zhou family were divided into three parts, and the largest and best part of the first part was picked out and given to Zhou Hongxiang's family. The second part is medium-sized and can be stored for a long time without scars, go down to the cellar and keep the Zhou family to eat slowly. The third part is that it is damaged when it is harvested and cannot be stored for a long time, or it is too small, so it is ripe and cut into pieces to dry sweet potatoes.

Autumn in the north has high skies, strong sunlight and dry air, which is perfect for drying things. Almost every house's yard is full of curtains tied with sorghum stalks, dried vegetables, dried sweet potatoes, and Maoyuer (melon seeds), and golden buds and red peppers are hung on the walls and shoji, a scene of a bumper harvest, which makes people feel happy when they look at it, feel that life has been implemented, and their hearts are extremely steady.

Of course, there are times when people are scrambling.

In the middle of the night, the sleeping Zhou family was suddenly woken up by Mrs. Zhou in a panic, and everyone got up to find that it was raining. A lot of things in the yard were simply covered, just to prevent the frost from drying tomorrow, and it was not rainproof at all, and the family hurriedly ran out to move things without the instructions of Mrs. Zhou.

Although the Zhou family acted quickly, the dried vegetables and dried sweet potatoes were still drenched in the rain. Everyone could only spread out these things little by little overnight, filling all the places that the Zhou family could place.

For a while, in addition to the sleeping place of the Zhou family, there were curtains everywhere on the kang, underground, cabinets, and pots, and they had to act carefully, Zhou Chen simply didn't let Zhou Wanwan walk by herself, and hugged her everywhere, for fear of touching one and smashing her.

This autumn rain came suddenly, but it didn't go simply, it lingered for two or three days and didn't stop, so anxious that Mrs. Zhou complained while letting her daughter-in-law and granddaughter turn the dried vegetables and sweet potatoes again and again. In the end, there was no choice but to dry it in a large pot. All the kang in the house was also filled, and the hot ones were used to dry. But no matter how you remedy it, only a small part of the dried vegetables and sweet potatoes that were drenched in the rain were dried, and the rest gradually became moldy.

The Zhou family, who is still in a state of semi-starvation, knows too much about the value of food, and no one can bear to throw these things away, so the staple food of the Zhou family in the past few days is moldy dried sweet potatoes and dried vegetables.

Wang Fengying and Zhou Jun muttered and whispered: "Don't let you eat it when it's fresh, you have to dry the vegetables, it's good now, how can you eat it when you cover your hair?" ”

"I said that I had been scolded for eating sweet potatoes for several days, and now I don't feel distressed when I am so bad."

……

A few days later, the sky finally cleared, not only the Zhou family, but almost every family in Sanjiatun was eating moldy dried vegetables and dried sweet potatoes.

When I received the grain in my hand, I couldn't waste anything, this is the most simple and firm belief that my ancestors have engraved in the bones of farmers for generations, even if it is not a catastrophic year, no one is willing to throw away these things.

The biggest loss of the Zhou family was dried sweet potatoes, almost all of which were moldy, and Mrs. Zhou's plan to send more dried sweet potatoes to Zhou Hongxiang this year also failed, so she could only remedy it from other places. But she didn't know that the two bags of sweet potatoes that she was going to give to Zhou Hongxiang would quickly become moldy when they arrived at Zhou Hongxiang's house, and they didn't want to eat a mouthful.

Fortunately, Mao Yan'er is basically fine, when it rains, it is half dry on the kang, and as soon as the day is clear, it will dry out in a few days.

Mrs. Zhou began to pick on the Qian family. At the beginning, it was a dustpan, this "dustpan" is similar to the principle of growing in the threshing floor, using wind and gravity to separate the plump and shriveled hair, of course, the big full one is reserved for a few children of the Qian family, and the shriveled ones are not very good to keep the Zhou family to eat by themselves. (To be continued.) )