Li Zhengye of Dahe Village, whose surname is Zhao, is fifty-five years old this year. He has been Li Zheng for more than 20 years and is very prestigious in the village.
Zhao Lizheng was the first to lend a pound of grain to the Wang family. Others also wanted to lend some, but there were too few people in the village with surplus grain. Everyone was starving, and no one could get the extra grain.
In the end, the villagers collected a total of three kilograms of grain.
With three kilograms of grain, even if we tighten our belts and eat one cent a day, the family can only eat for four or five days.
Aunt Wang was holding three kilograms of grain and cried so hard that she was out of breath. Finally, she fainted and fell into the arms of the eldest daughter of the Wang family.
Old Mrs. Zhao was also in the crowd. She borrowed half a catty of corn and originally wanted to tell her eldest daughter-in-law to be more alert in the middle of the night, but then she thought that all the coins she scraped from the Cheng family would be bought for meat. There was no surplus food. She shook her head and went back to Zhao's house, but instead of going to bed, she called the whole family up to hide the food.
In the Zhao family, only the main room was divided, and the second and third bedrooms all lived together. The adults and children made a total of twelve people.
Mrs. Zhao is a person who has lived a hard life and knows the importance of saving food. She saves a little every day. After such a long time, the family has saved forty or fifty kilograms of corn, thirty kilograms of buckwheat noodles, and more than thirty kilograms of quinoa. Cornmeal and mixed noodles... The old lady asked her two sons to hide ten kilograms in each room. Even if a thief sneaked in, they would only lose ten kilograms at most. They would not be like the Wang family, where the whole family went to drink the northwest wind.
That night, no one in Dahe Village slept well.
If the thief was not recovered, the Wang family would only have three kilograms of food left, which would not be able to sustain the autumn harvest... The most important thing is that there may not be an autumn harvest this year.
Early in the morning, there was a commotion in the Wang family.
"Dad, please don't betray me, please..."
Queen Wang, the eldest daughter of the Wang family, knelt on the ground and burst into tears.
Loach hugged his eldest sister and broke down crying: "Dad, please sell me. I am a boy and I can sell it for more money!"
Aunt Wang's tears also flowed down her face: "The head of the family, must this be the case?"
"We don't have food at home, how can we live like this if we don't sell her?" Wang Yongcheng sighed, "We are a big family, and even if there is a famine, there are still people who stutter. It is a blessing to send barley there. What is there to cry about? When the barley goes, others will give it to them. We only have half a pound of money, and half a pound of money can buy more than a hundred kilograms of grain, which is a good thing!"
He said this, but his face was full of sorrow.
It’s not that life is difficult, no one would think of selling their children.
As soon as Cheng Wanwan got up, she heard a dispute next door about selling a child.
She divided half of the chestnuts she picked up yesterday and walked to the next door with them.
She leaned against the mud wall and said sarcastically: "Li Zheng is really partial to your family. He collected three kilograms of grain for you without saying a word, but my family doesn't have a grain of rice! There is a grocery store owner in the town. I haven’t given birth to a son, so I’ll give you two taels of silver to buy my four eggs and throw them into the basin!”
"My four boys are all waiting for something to eat. If I sell four eggs, I can get two taels of silver to last until the Chinese New Year. No matter how bad a bastard I am, I am still my mother. I can't sell my children. At worst, we will all starve to death." She said. Throwing the chestnuts in his hand over, "I don't have the money to buy back the barley. Let's exchange this grain for the barley and go to our house to work for a day!"
She waved her hand, "Damai, why are you still standing there? Hurry up and wash my clothes!"
Wang Damai knew that Aunt Zhao was not a good person, but now she was willing to do anything as long as she could avoid being sold. She got up from the ground, not even bothering to wipe her tears, and immediately followed Cheng Wanwan away.
Aunt Wang was not willing to sell her daughter. After her daughter ran out, she deliberately blocked the door of the courtyard for fear that the master would catch up with her.
Wang Yongcheng sat on the dry firewood and smoked dry cigarettes.
Aunt Wang picked up the cloth bag on the ground. The heavy bag turned out to be four or five kilograms of chestnuts.
Maolizi is not a rare thing. There are many chestnuts on the mountain, but the chestnut trees near the bottom of the mountain have been stripped bare by the villagers. It is not every day that you come across the few chestnut trees yesterday... I think of the forty or fifty kilograms of chestnuts I just picked up yesterday. , her heart seemed to be bleeding.
"Sister-in-law Zhao can make a living without being stingy, why can't we!" Aunt Wang grabbed the chestnuts and gritted her teeth and said, "Even if you eat wild vegetables, gnaw tree bark, even if you eat dirt, I don't agree to sell them. child!"
Wang Yongcheng sighed: "Then let's wait until the rice in the field is harvested!"
If there is a harvest in the field, there is no need to sell the children, but if there is no harvest, no more grain will enter the warehouse for the next six months, and the only way out is to sell the children.
And when that time comes, they will never be the only ones selling children!
Cheng Wanwan led Wang Damai to her yard. Wu Huiniang had already washed and hung up the clothes that needed washing at home.
She sat down with Da Mai: "If your father really wants to sell you, no matter what I say, he will take you to the town."
Damai wiped away his tears and remained silent.
Cheng Wanwan sighed, although Aunt Wang loved children, in this era, it was common to favor sons over daughters. The eldest daughter of the Wang family had three daughters and one son, and Damai was the most miserable child in the Wang family.
"Eat something first, and then work." Cheng Wanwan stood up and walked to the kitchen. She looked at her eldest daughter-in-law and said, "Let's make batter and cook it with wild vegetables."
Because there were outsiders, she didn't take white flour, but buckwheat flour. The black buckwheat flour was boiled with wild vegetables into a paste. This is how every household here eats it, but their paste will be a little thicker for one person. A big bowl.
While Wu Huiniang was cooking breakfast, Zhao Sidan came over.
He grabbed Cheng Wanwan's sleeve, blinked his big eyes and asked, "Mom, is someone really going to buy me away for two taels of silver?"
This is not a lie made up by Cheng Wanwan. After Dashan's father died last year, some impoverished people from the next village did come to buy their sons for retirement. They came up with half a tael of silver for Si Dan to go to them for retirement. The original owner was a little tempted, but The family was scolded away by Mrs. Zhao with great firepower, and she never mentioned the matter again.
But if the famine becomes more and more serious, I am afraid that I will really sell Sidan...
Cheng Wanwan pinched the little guy's face: "So, when you grow up, you can't forget your mother when you have a wife."
Zhao Sidan nodded vigorously: "I will honor my mother for the rest of my life and let her have rice and meat for the rest of my life!"
Cheng Wanwan couldn't help laughing.
The aroma soon spread from the kitchen, and a large family sat down around the table. Wang Damai was also forced to sit down, with a bowl of wild vegetable paste in front of him.
"Aunt Zhao, this is not okay..."
Wang Damai waved his hands repeatedly. Aunt Zhao had just given their family a bag of grain, but she hadn't done anything yet. How could she eat a bowl of glutinous rice for nothing?
When their family still had food, she couldn't eat such a thick paste...
