At this time, Yu Wan had just entered her yard, and the first person to greet her was the family's big yellow dog. Its name was chosen casually, down-to-earth and in line with its body color: Dahuang.
When Dahuang heard someone pushing open the courtyard door, he stood up with his ears straightened up, wagging his tail and ran to Yu Wan's side, rubbing left and right. His eagerness to please Yu Wan made Yu Wan's heart feel warm and loving. He stroked Dahuang's head.
She came to the eaves of the tile-roofed house and took off the backpack from her shoulders. The walls of this tile-roofed house were built with yellow mud and the roof was covered with green tiles. After years of wind and rain, the cracks on the mud wall seemed to have been carved by someone. And out clearly visible.
There are three bedrooms, a hall and the kitchen built under the outer wall.
A fence made of intersecting bamboos formed a circle in the yard. A group of chicks were running around, following a flower hen. The hen and her chicks were looking for food in the vegetable field in the yard.
The yard is not big, but it is a typical small farmhouse, with chickens and dogs jumping around, and melons and vines on the shelves.
Yu Wan stood at the door of the house. She had to relieve the awkwardness of calling her mother, and shouted in the clear voice of an eight-year-old girl:
"Mom! I'm back."
A young woman in her twenties walked out of the main room with a coughing sound. This woman was Yu Wan's mother, Ling Niang.
When Ling Niang saw her daughter who had returned, she couldn't help but blame her: "Ahem... Wan'er is back and you went up the mountain again? You are a girl, don't you know that going up the mountain is dangerous? Don't go there again. This will make my mother follow you." You worry."
Yu Wan knew that she was worried about him, but didn't want to get too entangled, so he changed the subject and said, "Mom, don't worry, I won't go alone in the future. You seem to have a cough again. Did you take medicine this morning?"
Saying that, without waiting for Ling Niang's reply, Yu Wan ran to the kitchen to see if there was any missing medicine in the clay pot.
Ling Niang saw Yu Wan's child's character and smiled helplessly:
"You sound like a naive baby. I have taken all the medicines prescribed by Dr. Li on time, so I don't have to worry."
Yu Wan walked out of the kitchen and saw that the medicine in the medicine jar was much less. She felt relieved and said, "I'm afraid my mother will find the medicine bitter and won't drink it."
In fact, she was afraid that Ling Niang would not be willing to spend money on the medicine, so she drank sparingly every time. I spent the rest of the night cooking the medicine and watching Ling Niang drink it.
Ling Niang couldn't help laughing when she heard Yu Wan's childish words:
"You are used to finding your mother happy."
Yu Wan helped Ling Niang into the house. When she didn't see her younger brother Yu Chen, she asked:
"Where's Ah Chen? Why haven't you seen him? This guy is the most naughty and weird. Why are you so quiet today?"
"He went to the village to play with his friends and he hasn't come back yet," Ling Niang said.
"By the way, Mom, I picked a lot of wild vegetables in the mountains, as well as the herbs that Dr. Li said can cure you. I'll cook them for you later."
As she spoke, Yu Wan ran under the eaves and sorted out the things picked in the basket one by one.
When taking out a pheasant he said:
"Uncle Jiang gave this chicken to me when we were going down the mountain. I said he didn't want it and he put it in. I had no choice but to carry it home." After saying that, he looked at Ling Niang with some embarrassment.
Ling Niang coughed and sighed:
"Ahem...hey..."
"This is because your Uncle Jiang is kind-hearted. You must remember this favor and repay this favor if you have the opportunity in the future."
Yu Wan replied quickly:
"Oh, I see."
In fact, it goes without saying that Uncle Jiang has really been taking care of the orphans and widowers of their family. He does it secretly to avoid suspicion.
Just like when I woke up that morning and saw a pile of firewood at the door of the courtyard;
Or from time to time, at the entrance of the hospital, there is a package of herbs labeled with the packaging of the "Heshengtang" pharmacy in the town...
And so on, the original person "Yu Wan" found out that Yu Jiang did these details, but the young "Yu Wan" didn't know Yu Jiang's true thoughts of doing this. She was an adult at heart, but she could think of it. Yu Jiang was interested in Ling Niang, but he never dared to express it directly, so he used his own stupid method to pay silently.
Yu Wan sighed silently. If possible, she would like Yu Jiang and Ling Niang to be together, so that Ling Niang would not be so tired. As a daughter, Yu Wan is only an eight-year-old girl and can't help much with many things. A man who cares about her can improve her condition.
Yu Wan carried the chicken to the kitchen and heated up hot water. After waiting for a while, the water was hot and the chicken was plucked, the internal organs were removed and washed, and the rhubarb was swirling around Yu Wan. , and from time to time he would let out an aggrieved whine, which made Yu Wan giggle with joy, this guy wanted to eat meat.
Ling Niang watched her daughter handle the chicken so smoothly that she couldn't help but feel sad. A good daughter would let her do such bloody things.
She felt guilty and distressed, with tears welling up in her eyes. With the sound of coughing, she turned away, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, walked to Yu Wan and said:
"You are young and have little strength. It is dangerous to chop a chicken with a knife. Let me do it."
After saying that, he took the chicken that Yu Wan had prepared and put it on the chopping board and started to chop it into small pieces. Yu Wan was also busy passing the plates to add fire and boil water.
Although Ling Niang is a weak woman, she has carried the family by herself for so many years, and now she can kill chickens and cut meat with ease.
Ling Niang is not from Yujia Village, she was brought back by Yu's father from outside. When Ling Niang came, she looked like a young lady with thin skin and tender flesh, and she did not look like a girl who lived in the village doing farm work, but now she has been working hard for many years. He was wasting his time, his hands were already covered with thick calluses, and only this thin face could vaguely reveal the look of the once quiet and pretty girl.
And Ling Niang seemed to have forgotten her past. The only thing she remembered was that her name was Ling Niang, and Father Yu took it as Ling Niang's name and called her.
She followed Father Yu to Yujia Village and became his wife. A year later, she gave birth to Yu Wan. The arrival of the child made the silly Father Yu smile like a child. This was his and Ling Niang’s child! He had his first child with Ling Niang!
Father Yu is an honest and honest man, but he is also a man who loves others. He likes Ling Niang and is never willing to let her do farm work for fear that she will be tired and hungry. He has to work hard to earn money. , just thinking about making more money and giving it to Ling Niang.
In the third year after Yu Wan was born, his younger brother Yu Chen was born. Yu's father was even more happy because the old Yu family had a child! While he was happy, he worked hard to support his family.
In the same year that Yu Chen was born, Yu's father worked too hard and was caught in a night rain. His body was severely overdrawn and he eventually died of overwork.
This bad news was a big blow to the orphaned and widowed Yu family. Ling Niang was soft on the outside but strong on the inside. Ling Niang, who had never touched the spring water before, had no choice but to go out to support her family. She did farm work during the day, embroidered and needlework at night, and had to take care of two children at the same time.
In this feudal era, Yu Wan could imagine how difficult it was for Ling Niang. Ling Niang's body also collapsed in just a few years, and the root cause of the labor-related cough fell away.
Looking at Ling Niang chopping up the chicken, Yu Wan couldn't help but feel sorry for her mother. She added a handful of firewood to the stove and helped Ling Niang start the cooking.
She suddenly remembered that the colorful flowers she had brought back from the mountain were still lying next to the basket on her back. She got up and walked under the eaves, where she packed the herbs, wild vegetables and fungus picked from the mountain into baskets, and put the herbs and fungus in the sun to dry. I held up the five-color flowers again, looked at my vegetable garden, and finally decided to plant them on the bamboo fence against the wall.
Yu Wan dug up the soil to plant flowers and said to herself while looking at the five-color flowers:
"Since you like to grow in shady places, I will plant you in this corner."
After the flower was planted, I didn't forget to pour some water to moisten the roots. I was afraid that the flower hen at home would bring a group of chicks to harm it, so I specially used an old bamboo basket to buckle it up.
After doing this, he clapped his hands, stood up, cleaned his hands, and returned to the kitchen to continue helping Ling Niang.
Not long after, Ling Niang took the fried chicken out of the pot and put it on a plate. Seeing that the gruel in the pot was ready, she said to Yu Wan:
"Lunch is ready. Why doesn't your brother come back? After being out for so long, it's time to go home for dinner.
Yu Wan thought about it and realized that it was time for this naughty brother to go home, so he took Dahuang out to find someone in the village.
