Chapter 5 Child-Childhood
Zhu Jiawang is smart and clever, and follows the children in the village to see the sky up the mountain and down the river. In the spring, he carried the clip made by his grandfather to beat the birds, jumped to the lake below the mountain to catch fish in the summer, went to the woods to pick mushrooms and wild fruits with the basket in the autumn, and led his own soil dog up the mountain to set hares in the winter.
Zhu Jiawang is very good at everything. At the beginning of spring, when the adults began to busy preparing the land and sowing seeds, Zhu Jiawang began to search the firewood stacks from house to house, specifically looking for straw with insect eyes, catching out the fat insects, and putting them into the medicine bottles that his grandfather discarded after taking the medicine. Put some straw and grain in the medicine bottle, and the bottle cap uses the mother's sewing needle to pierce some thin eyes as a gas window. Then he took the medicine bottle into his arms and never left his body. After a few days, open the vial, remove the fatter bugs, and clamp them to the latch of the bird clip.
Early in the morning, he got up with the adults, who went to work in the fields, and he and the children of the same age in the village carried birdcloves up the mountain to hunt birds. Jia Wang observed carefully and found many patterns of birds. For example, low bushes are generally more attractive to birds, and secondly, at noon, there are more birds in places with water, especially where there are trees near the water. Jia Wang couldn't name the birds, but he knew that no matter what the bird was, it was delicious for him and for his family.
The clip made by grandpa is very exquisite, there is no trace of rust on the wire, the two pieces are surrounded by iron wire into a fan shape of the same size, the coiled spring wire is very uniform, and the force is moderate, not loose or tight, just suitable for Jiawang this age, the tail of the clip is surrounded by a beautiful plum blossom, and the bolt and stick are sharpened with chopsticks at home. The friends in the village are envious of Jia Wang's perfect bird clip.
Based on experience, Jiawang chooses the location of the clamp. He knelt on his knees, used the edge of the clamp to puff off the soil on the ground, forming a plate-like soil nest, and then filled the soil nest fluffily with the exaggerated floating soil, took out the medicine bottle in his arms, pulled out a fat worm, clamped the tail to the latch of the bird clip, opened the bird clip, and inserted the stick into the latch. At this time, the fat worm is like a whip thrown up, constantly turning and shaking its head. Jiawang carefully held the edge of the clamp that had been erected with both hands, and slowly sat the clamp into the soil nest filled with floating soil, and the lower part of the entire clamp slowly sank into the soil until the insect touched the soil surface and began to crawl in a straight line. Jia Wang filled the rest of the soil with all the soil until the upper part of the clamp was completely buried by the soil, and only the fat worms tied to the latch leaked out. The insect kept crawling forward, but it was difficult to move an inch, like a dancer who took a space step, only to keep walking, but always in place. After Jia Wang completed this series of actions, he cleaned the area around the bird clip with a tree branch, removed the traces of man-made, and after completing the last step, he retreated far aside.
Soon flocks of birds landed on the tall branches, jumping up and down, chirping non-stop. There are always one or two birds that will jump down from the tall trees and land on the low bushes. It was alert and hopeful, but it still couldn't resist the temptation of the fat worm, shook its head, and jumped to the bird's clip, watching the fat worm crawl in place. When the first bird pecked at the fat insect, I saw the dust flying, and there was a "pop" sound, and the birds that fell on the ground and the trees scattered and fled, which was a sign of Jiawang's receipt. Because Jiawang's bugs are so large that the birds are always the first to peck at their clips, they harvest more than their other partners every day.
His father made a slingshot for Jiawang, but he basically didn't use it. It's only used after the clamp is down, when the bird is looping, and occasionally it can hit the bird hiding in the treetops. Birds hit by slingshots generally do not die, and most of them are injured. Jia Wang will run after the injured bird until it is caught. Jia Wang is kind by nature, although he often fights birds, but in the face of injured birds, he will be overflowing with love, he will secretly put his grandfather's white medicine powder on the wounds of the birds, until the birds are really unable to save them in the end, then throw them into the stove and bury them with fire to burn and eat. The taste of wild birds is very special, and you don't need to put any ingredients, just bury them in the embers of the stove and they can be cooked. The bird that had just come out of the stove was black, like a piece of charcoal, but it was charred on the outside and tender on the inside. Jia Wang skillfully smashed the charcoal on the ground a few times, knocked off the outer layer of ashes, plucked the charred feathers with his hands, and the tender and delicious meat inside was steaming, and it became Jia Wang's delicacy. Jiawang's meat smell of birds is like a beast's greed for meat, he loves to fight birds and eat birds, which is the child's ignorant primitive desire.
As soon as spring passes, the temperature rises, the lake begins to warm, the turquoise lake is like an emerald embedded in the valley, the mirror-like lake surface shines on the glimpse of the swallow, the moment the cheerful swallow pecks the water, the ripples like radar, circle by circle until it disappears.
Jiawang finished breakfast in the morning, said hello to his grandfather, and took the ground cage flower basket made by his grandfather (a kind of fishing tool in the folk, surrounded by bamboo into a ring, surrounded by a fishing net and stitched together, the three rings are hollow inside, the front end is opened with a diamond-shaped hole, the hole is trapped in the net, and the fish swims into the net along the diamond-shaped hole, and it can't come out. At the back end is a live mouth tied with a rope, and when the fish in the net is about to be emptied, the rope is opened and the fish can be poured into the basket. Find iron eggs from the same village to play in the lake.
Jia Wang and Tie Dan set up their own military base by the lake. Using mud to pinch out airplanes, tanks, and artillery, the Japanese devils and the national army will compete to be the Eighth Route Army.
As soon as the military battle ended, the water temperature also rose to a certain temperature. The two of them stripped off their essence and ran towards the lake happily, alternating between lifting their legs and entering the water, turning up a string of splashes. Running and running, he suddenly lost his trace, and could only see two strings of ripples moving towards the center of the lake, and Bai Jingjing's ass occasionally leaked out behind the ripples, and then two heads poked out of their heads.
The two of them are happily playing in the water, the bottom of the lake is full of sand and gravel, walking in the lake in addition to the resistance of the water, just like walking on the road, the two compete to see who jumps high, whenever they jump, their immature chicks will surface, and the chicks shrink in the water with elastic shaking on the surface of the lake.
The last activity of playing in the water is to pee farther and longer than who pees. Jiawang has his own skills, after eating in the morning, he began to hold his urine, the muscles of the chick contracted in the water were tight, he lifted half of the chick's skin to act as a pressure valve, leaking out a third of the chicken's head, and at the same time pressed the urethral opening with his hand, the boy's urine squirted out, ejaculated thin and far, and poured yellowed foam on the surface of the lake at the far end. In terms of distance, Jia Wang won every time, but occasionally lost in the long run. When I was tired of playing, I began to harvest the fish and shrimp in the ground cage. The big fish are eaten or sold, the small shrimp are dried, and the small fish and water bugs are fed to the chickens and ducks.
Autumn is the season of receiving. The green and yellow trees on the mountain are dotted with red fruits; The uneven farmland below the mountain is covered with a golden patch. The golden crops below the mountain are scattered with adults busy harvesting, and the trees on the mountain are filled with naughty and frolicking children.
Jia Wang carried his grandfather's wicker basket and shuttled through the woods with his cat's waist. His eyes were fixed on the fallen leaves under the trees, his eyes constantly rolling, scanning the space a few meters in front of him. When you see a yellow-brown mushroom with its head out, you will immediately walk over and pick up the fallen leaves around it, and if you see a mushroom, you will usually find a mushroom cluster. There are many types of mushrooms, but Jiawang only picks two: one oil mushroom and one yellow mushroom. Oil mushrooms can be pickled, and yellow mushrooms can be dried. Mushrooms can be eaten until the beginning of spring next year after processing, pickled can be fried and eaten, and sun-dried yellow mushrooms can be stewed. In particular, the pheasant stewed with mushrooms is a famous dish for the Chinese New Year in the mountains. There are still many wild fruits on the mountain, but most of them taste astringent, and the children will still pick some of them, put them in their mouths and chew them, and then spit them out, tasting the faint hint of sweetness. Mountain red is the children's favorite, the village people have maintained a tacit understanding, although the mountain red is good, but it is more delicious to eat in winter, so everyone does not pick it in autumn.
In winter, people have nothing to do. When the first heavy snow covered the entire mountain in silver, smoke rose from the white houses in the village below.
Jiawang was ready to go, followed his father, led his own dog, and went up the mountain to hunt hares. Last night's heavy snowfall clearly exposed the footprints of the animals on the mountain to the sight of the villagers who went up the mountain to hunt. Through the footprints, Jiawang can easily distinguish the footprints of rabbits, badgers, weasels, voles, and pheasants.
He and his father chased the footprints of a rabbit, which went back and forth, and his father climbed up the hill according to experience, and when he was almost halfway up the mountain, the footprints disappeared in a bush. The father motioned for Jiawang to stop, then quietly leaned down on the snow, picked up the bushes, and found a cave the size of a bowl, and a thin layer of snow fell from the mouth of the cave. That means that a rabbit came out after the snow and ran back into the hole. The father took out a piece of hemp rope from his bag, tied a looper, and put it at the entrance of the cave, and the other end of the hemp rope was nailed to the side of the cave. Then he slowly retreated, and made a mark five or six meters away from the entrance of the cave, indicating that the others already had an owner in this place.
Jia Wang and his father continued to search for prey, and on the way, they came across a tree with mountain red, which they would pick and put in their backpacks. While following his father, Jia Wang took out the frozen mountain red from his bag, stuffed it into his mouth and slowly softened, allowing the juice like syrup.
It is said that pheasants are more stupid, and they don't care about their heads, but if they really catch them, it is still very laborious, and the earth dog has to play a role, and the pheasants have no strength, so that there may be a situation where the legendary pheasant burrows his head into the snow and his butt is exposed. Since childhood, Jiawang has only encountered such a situation once. Fighting pheasants mainly depends on clips, which are several sizes larger than bird clips. Jiawang couldn't break such a big clip at all, and his father was very struggling.
The father swept out a piece of black soil in the place where pheasants often frequented, and then sprinkled some grains, and the clips were buried there, and the clips should be tied with hemp rope and nailed with nails, otherwise the pheasants would not die immediately after being hit, and they would not be able to tell where they would run like flies. In fact, the way of hunting pheasants is similar to that of Jiawang catching birds in winter, when Jiawang does not go up the mountain with his father, he will sweep out a clearing in the yard, sprinkle the grains, and use wooden sticks to prop up a bamboo basket, when the sparrows get under the basket to eat the grains, pull the rope tied to the wooden stick from a distance, and the basket will fall to the ground, and the sparrows will be buckled into the basket.
The harvest on this day was quite rich, Jiawang and his father hunted two hares, three pheasants, and picked a bag of mountain red.
In the evening, Jiawang sat on the small bench in front of the stove, filling the stove with firewood one by one, the fire in the stove reflected Jiawang's face red, the pot gurgled loudly, and the lid of the pot was steaming, wafting out the aroma of stewed meat. After the hare meat was stewed, Jia Wang picked up the fattest and largest piece of rabbit meat that had just come out of the pot and put it in a bowl and served it to grandpa. Grandpa broke his sitting bone while picking medicine, and now he is unable to move, grandpa has taken good care of Jiawang since he was a child, and now Jiawang knows that he loves grandpa, and he always gives grandpa delicious food first.
Children, don't be greedy, it's the New Year after Laba. From the sound of the explosion of two kicks that echoed in the mountains, I heard the joy of the New Year.
Jiawang changed into new clothes, it was a set of imitation military children's clothes, complete epaulettes and armbands, and Jiawang's uncle gave him a Lei Feng cotton hat, and the hat was embedded with a pure national emblem with the word Bayi. Usually, Jiawang is reluctant to bring it, so he looks forward to the New Year, and his family can buy him a set of "military uniforms" to match. Jia Wang put on new clothes, put on a hat, looked in the mirror, was very satisfied with himself, and hurried to his grandfather's room to let him see. Grandpa saw Jiawang dressed up and blossomed, and Kua Jiawang was a regular army. After breakfast, Jiawang wore his new outfit, carried a small whip in his pocket, a pack of matches, and half a stick of incense out of the door, and went out to play with his friends, which attracted the infinite envy of his companions. In this gun game, Jiawang undoubtedly became the Eighth Route Army, and no one fought with him. Jia Wang struck a match, lit the half of the incense, removed the lambwhip one by one and put it in his pocket, lit one from time to time, and threw it as a grenade to the local position. With a snap, the grenade exploded, and the Eighth Route Army was victorious.