My childhood and adolescence were spent in mountain villages in the countryside. At that time, the family was poor, and the clothes they wore were coarse cloth clothes made by hand by my mother. There was no electricity at home, and the kerosene lamp was lit. At night, I went to study late, and I also put on a kerosene lamp, and the next morning I pulled out my nose, and my nose was black. At that time, there was no clock at home, and sometimes I heard the chickens chirping in the morning and quickly got up, there was a moon in the sky, and I didn't feel dark. Walk to the school in the broken temple on the east side of the village, and lie on your stomach at the desk and wait for dawn. Sometimes I waited an hour or two, and it wasn't light, and sometimes I just fell asleep there. At night, after night self-study, sometimes it is dark, go to the west of the village, there is no classmate to be a companion, in order to give yourself courage, the mouth while screaming and shouting something, while running to the home. It always felt as if someone was following behind.
In the morning, at noon, and after school, I had to carry a basket and take a sickle to cut the grass in the field. In the spring, the grass has just budded, so two or three pounds can be handed over to the team to change the division of labor. In the summer and autumn, one or twenty pounds of grass can be exchanged for a division of labor. At that time, a whole laborer earned ten divisions a day, and women and half-sized children earned only seven divisions. Each work is worth one or two cents. Sometimes in the summer, after school at noon, I went up the mountain with my father to mow the grass, and I had to cut the team to work quickly, and I didn't go home until the school bell rang. My father carried two bales of grass in his head, and I carried a small bundle behind me. The clothes were washed like water, and the arms and back were covered with prickly heat. When I returned home to dry the grass, I could sell for four or five yuan per hundred catties of hay, which was the family's salt money and oil money in winter.
Sometimes I go to the dung or hillside to dig up the original zhi (a kind of Chinese medicinal material), and when I go home, I peel off the skin and dry it, and one or two can sell for more than one dollar. Dig a few times to dry one or two. Sometimes I go to the hillside to lift stones to catch scorpions, and I can't catch a few in half a day. At night, take a hood lamp or flashlight to catch the turtles, burn them in hot water, and dry them in the sun. On Sunday, a few friends ganged up to go to the buying station seven or eight miles away to sell. Feeling that the money sold was more (more than two dollars), he went to the small bookstore in the commune to pick up the picture book, rubbed it for an hour or two, and spent one or two cents to buy his favorite picture book, and went home satisfied.
When I was a child, I looked forward to the New Year, and I could have new clothes to wear, dumplings to eat, and meat to eat.
When he was eight or nine years old, he had to go to the production team to participate in labor during the summer and autumn vacations. Picking ears of wheat, picking sweet potatoes, picking cotton, etc. Every day in the poisonous sun, the clothes are stained on the body. When he was half resting, he panicked to the root of the weir far away from the crowd to untie his hands. Sometimes find a highland under the weir root and cool off in the shade for a while. Sometimes sitting on the ground, sometimes just lying down, looking at the clouds in the blue sky in a daze. I imagined what the world outside the mountains would be like. When you return home, you will find dry food to eat without washing, if there is no dry food left, wash a piece of raw sweet potato to eat.
There are also happy times. Go to the West Garden with a few friends to mow the grass. After picking up a dime in the field, we happily went to the melon field of the old man in the village to buy melons to eat, and the crisp melon was cheaper than the melon. We discussed it, or decided to buy crispy melon. Because there are many people, I am afraid that I will not be able to buy sweets and divide them. We muttered a few words, two people around the grandfather to pick melons, weigh melons, the other couple carried their own grass baskets, cover each other, from time to time someone bent down to pick a melon, put it in the basket with a straw cover, and then casually looked at the grandfather. When the two people who bought the melon finished buying the melon, we quickly withdrew together, and when we reached the reed bushes far away from the melon field, we stopped breathlessly, took out the melon and counted, and there were five melons that were secretly picked with the purchase belt.
There are many kinds of grasses, the names on the name are: cabbage, grunt seedlings, grab seedlings, knotweeds, bitter bitters, trumpet flowers, sweet root grass, wild reeds, etc., sometimes the grass is full of purple or red or white flowers, on which fly a few black and yellow small bees. Sometimes thirsty can not work, just go to the reed pit to cut a few long reeds, dig two small holes in the lower reed joint, not long enough, and then pick up one, put into the well in the ground to drink water, the water in the well is very cold, although the amount of water in the mouth is small, but a few more back and forth there, the water is really enjoyable to drink. Use reeds to fetch water to drink, the main thing is to pay attention to safety, sometimes accidentally drop the small toys in your pocket. At that time, there will always be frightened hearts, in case someone falls down and there will be no life, and no one in this desolate slope can save you.
The school also engages in work-study, cutting grass and feeding sheep. Endless sun-dried money. Everyone is more than to see who cuts more grass pounds. This time less, next time I made up my mind to cut more. Sometimes I go up the mountain to pick up locust leaves, go back to school to dry, and then grind the noodles on the machine that grinds the noodles, saying that it can be sold to the United States to exchange foreign exchange. Sometimes they also go up the mountain to catch caterpillars, each taking a large glass bottle with a lid and making a clip with chopsticks. The cypress forests on the East Mountain and the South Mountain are managed by the state-run forestry farm, and the trees are plagued by insects every year, and we go up the mountain every year to catch insects. There are fewer woods in Nanshan and more woods in Dongshan. There is a Nantianguan at the north end of the East Mountain, which is the place where Taoist monks used to practice, and there is a big stage in the north, and there is a small stone house under the stage, whether it is spring, summer, autumn or winter, there is a cool spring water flowing out of the cracks in the mountain stone. There is a pool on the north side of the stone house, where I used to take a bath. That pool was built by my father and their stonemasons in the 1970s. I remember my father, they went up the mountain in the morning, came back in the evening, and at noon they had a meal on the mountain, white steamed buns, and meat dishes. At that time, I thought, when I grow up, I will also rely on my strength to earn white steamed bread and meat dishes to eat.
No matter which project, as long as it ranks in the top few, there will be rewards. Or a few pencils, or a text with a prize. At that time, the homework book used had a red award word on it, which was a very honorable thing.
I remember when I was a child, I saw a group of trained soldiers walking on the highway, and I was envious. I thought to myself, when will I be able to walk into such a team, follow them out of the mountains, and see what the world outside the mountains is like. I love standing on the side of the road and smelling the smell of gasoline in the air after the car.
After the autumn, the seeds dropped from the locust tree were smashed and pinched on the sorghum pole, and a pin was inserted in the middle, and when it was cool and dry, it was an arrow. Then go to the broom and steal a bamboo strip, bend it into a bow, and tie it with thin rope at both ends. This is the set of bows and arrows.
There are two large persimmon trees by the river north of the village, and we always go there first when we cut grass during the summer vacation. In the summer, people are tired, and they want to sleep when they sit down, and sometimes they sit under a tree and fall asleep. Sometimes a ripe persimmon will fall from the tree and fall to the ground, like a blooming flower, then the nearest person will regret it, if it is good to catch it, it can also be full of happiness and relief.
Many things in my memory are related to eating.
Poor also has the pleasure of being poor.
Pictured in the text: Wang Hexuan
Writer's resume: Wang Peijing, novelist. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and the president of the Beijing Small Fiction Salon. In 2009, "Who Doesn't Want to Be a Flying Bird" won the Bingxin Book Award, from 2006 to 2011, he won the first prize of the fourth annual miniature novel in China, in 2012, the essay "Parents' Heart" won the Fifth National Bingxin Prose Award, and in 2015, he won the Seventh Golden Sparrow Award. His works have won more than seventy awards both inside and outside the military.
More than 100 works have been selected by newspapers and periodicals such as "Selected Novels", "Readers", "Writers' Digest", "Youth Expo", "Reading for Middle School Students", "Selected Small Novels" and so on. More than 100 works have been selected into the "100 Favorite Essays of Readers", "Annual Selection of Military Essays", "Miniature Novel Volumes of the New Chinese Literature Department", "Selected Chinese Miniature Novels in the World" (Chinese and English comparison) and other anthologies. His works have been translated into English, Japanese and other foreign languages. His works "I Have a House", "The Magic of Long Kisses", "Military Salute", "Female Soldiers Outside the Staff", "Military Soul", "A Bowl of Springs", etc. were selected as mock examination papers and extracurricular reading test questions for the college entrance examination of more than 50 middle and high schools in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, such as Anhui, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong. He has published 20 works, including "How Can I Not Miss You", "Selected Small Stories of Wang Peijing", "Who Doesn't Want to Be a Flying Bird", "Feeling of Happiness", "Looking for Heroes", "Female Soldiers Outside the Compilation", "The Dream of a Scavenger", "Military Soul" and so on.