Dinner for a big yellow cow
Text/Xu Jintao
(Web Photo)
In the early 1980s, the co-production contract responsibility system had already begun to be implemented, and my family was given a share of the land and a big yellow cow. At that time, the big yellow cow was the treasure of the family. The impression was that the scalper was given to two families in the alley by the production team, and then she gave birth to a calf, and the calf was given to another family, and we left the big scalper.
After the big yellow cow came to my house, under the careful care of his grandparents, he grew very strong, his body was shiny, and his eyes were shining, as if he could talk. Listening to Grandpa, this cow is an acute child and works fast. Grandpa also liked this big yellow cow very much, and since then, it has served our family diligently, and the big yellow cow can do everything, plough the land, transport fat, catch the market, go to relatives, etc., and make a very great contribution to our family.
It is said that the morning glory is slow, but our big yellow cow is an acute child, walking, can shake its arms, can be twice as fast as other cattle. Of course, the same is true of cultivated land, never lazy. Other people's cattle ploughing the land, once tired, always stop and not go, but our family's big yellow cattle even if tired and sweaty, the arms are pulled deeply into the sunken, always desperately go forward, until the owner shouts to stop. Grandpa always didn't let it get too affected, occasionally smoked a bag of cigarettes, always gave it some time to rest, as if the big yellow bull was already a member of our family.
Every time the grandparents come back from the ground, they always cling to the time to cut some tender grass for the rhubarb cattle, take it home, seriously shorten it, mix it with wheat bran or cornmeal, and reward the big yellow cattle that have been tired for a day.
In this way, the big yellow cow is diligent and earnest, serving my family day after day.
Every winter when he was idle, Grandpa let the cattle pull him to sell farm products, dates, sweet potatoes, soybeans, mung beans and so on. Of course, during the New Year, the big yellow bull will also take us to visit relatives. No matter how far away, no matter where you go, the big yellow bull is the wind under your feet, and the big yellow bull is already a member of our family.
The big yellow cow gives birth to a calf almost every year, because in that era of little machinery and foot power, our family had a very deep affection for the big yellow cow. Grandpa always insisted that the calves grow up and were reluctant to sell. For a while, we had three cows fed at the same time, and then we gave them to relatives to raise. In my impression, it seems that at the same time, there were 5 cows in the nearby relatives and neighbors who were the children of large yellow cows. Sometimes the big yellow bull can meet or see his child by chance, and he will scream a few times in a low voice, if there is no emergency, grandpa always let them stay together for a while, and the intimate behavior of the big yellow bull and the child is emotional.
I also really like our docile big yellow cattle, every time I come home from school, if I meet an adult in the field to catch an ox cart back, I always like to lead the bull home on the street.
The big scalper also had time to rest, and I remember that it was a summer afternoon when the family went to work in the fields and left me at home to look after my homework. They told me as they were leaving to let me feed the cows if the adults came back late. I said I knew, I've seen adults feed cows.
At that time, there was river water in the big river outside our house every day, which was nothing more than to wet the cut grass, remove some dust, and then pour it into the cow trough, and mix it well with bran cornmeal. I have seen that the big yellow cow loves to eat grass with bran or cornmeal very much, she takes a big bite of grass, and now that I think about it, I am very emotional, the big yellow cow is so tired, doing such heavy physical work, eating grass when I go home, and adding some bran is very happy. It's too much to pay for our family.
The sun had set, the adults had not yet returned, and I thought I should feed the cattle, he must have been very hungry, so I learned the order of the adults feeding the cattle, picked up two bags of grass, went to the river to wash them, and came back and poured them into the cow trough. I think today I want to treat the big yellow cow, put more delicious bran for him, I turned around and went to the bran jar to scoop the bran, suddenly I found a few bags of sawdust against the wall (at that time, the sawdust left by our sawdust was used to burn the fire for heating,) Suddenly a ghost idea popped up in my head, I thought, the cow is not a person, the sawdust and the bran look similar, the cow does not know, I mix the sawdust in the grass can not save the bran, adults may also praise me. In this way, I scooped a lot of sawdust, evenly combined with the grass ginseng, and watched the sawdust of a cow trough stick to the green grass, and I felt that I had succeeded, so I triumphantly went to the field behind the house and led the cow to the side of the cow trough.
Maybe the cow was already hungry, he ate it, I also had a sense of success, happy to go to the house to write homework, I want to wait until the end of the meal, the adults came back, I don't say, let them guess, my new invention.
When it was dark, the grandparents came back, and as soon as they entered the door, they shouted, two small, do you feed the cows, I answered, I have already finished eating,
Then I heard Grandpa say again, how come I haven't eaten at all, what is this, how can there be sawdust in the grass? I think it's broken, how can the cow recognize it? I was terrified, afraid that if things were revealed, I would be beaten. Hurry out to root Grandma explained the course of events, Grandma said with a bitter smile, children, cattle are also human, but also know what is delicious, can not be deceived. Then he told grandpa to throw away all the grass and replace it with a new one. I stood there in a daze until Grandpa washed the remaining grass in the water and mixed it with wheat bran, fed the cow well, the big yellow cow took a big bite of the fragrant grass, and the eyes flickered and looked at me, as if the big yellow cow was not angry with me....Everything has spirituality, the cow is also human, can not deceive her, I silently thought in my heart, and walked to my room.
Later, the big yellow cow is old, can not work, grandpa is reluctant to sell always said that there is no less effort to the family, but the big yellow cow has its own final destination after all, even if the old yellow cow was sold by the father on the day, the younger brother cried and led it to the distance, hidden, but still did not get rid of the fate of the arrangement. On the day of leaving, the old scalper stared at a pair of tearful eyes, as if he was saying goodbye, as if he was mourning, as if he was not willing to give up, and was pulled away by the car with a low roar.
To this day, unforgettable the dinner of the rhubarb cow, and even more unforgettable is the words of grandma, all things have spirituality, and the cow is also humane, and cannot deceive her. Broadly speaking, this is also a criterion for being a human being in a sense.
【About the author】Xu Jintao, male, born in 1976, from Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng City, has been engaged in foreign trade work for more than 20 years, runs his own fig farm in his spare time, loves his hometown land, loves labor, likes rural documentary literature, often writes and writes, records the life of the times, study experience, work and other beautiful bits, expressing his true feelings.