Text: Idle old farmers
My wife and I got married on the sixth day of the lunar month in 1979, and we separated from our parents in February 80.
We have many brothers, and we have all been married in recent years. Build a house, buy things, marry a wife, and hold a banquet...... Parents have long since survived with nothing.
I think my parents have worked hard for our brothers for most of their lives, and I have not enjoyed a single day of happiness, and although I am not able to change this poor situation for the time being, I must find a way to lighten the burden on my parents, right?
Thinking about it, I still have to grieve my newlywed wife. In the old countryside, there was a custom that in the spring, parents would give the new daughter-in-law money for seasonal clothes. In order to save this amount of money for my parents, I would like to propose a separation before the spring. In this way, the parents will not have to pay for the wife's clothes.
When the family was separated, I was divided into two low, dark and old adobe houses, more than 20 catties of wheat, half a jar of corn, and some simple drinking utensils.
It was spring at the time, and I could make do with this little food and vegetables, although I could make do with the food, but I didn't have any money in my hand, and I didn't have much money as a substitute teacher.
The wife saw that some people in the village raised sows, and they could sell their piglets for money, so she thought it was good. They discussed with me to feed one head as well. So I went and borrowed 30 yuan, plus 8 yuan from my wife, and was going to buy a piglet to feed, and the piglet was cheap, and I raised it to be a sow.
We want to go to the county seat to buy it, and there must be more varieties in the county than in our town, and the price is estimated to be cheaper. I borrowed an old bike and set off without thinking about anything. Before leaving, my wife also specially told me: to be optimistic, it is best to find more nipples.
The county seat is more than 30 kilometers away from our village, of which more than 10 kilometers are curved mountain roads, uneven, uphill and downhill abound. At that time, I didn't have a watch, so I left before dawn anyway.
A man hurried along in the hazy moonlight. At that time, the social order was good, I had never heard of a robbery, I didn't know to be afraid, the ride went smoothly, and when I arrived at the county seat, people had not eaten breakfast.
I inquired as I walked around, and at that time the county seat was not very large, and there was only one market. I was soon found. I pushed the cart around, and the people who were rushing to the market came to the market one after another. The pig market is in the northeast corner of the big market, and the piglet sellers tie the four legs of the piglets back and back and put them on the land to wait for buyers.
I have a little black pig in the picture is very chubby, tied up and chewing on the front of the food to eat, it stiffens its body, eats that called a fragrant, I think: this little guy must be easy to feed. Then I quietly counted the teats, and there were sixteen! I looked at the other piglets, and the number was fourteen.
So I made up my mind that I was going to do this.
This is a slightly chubby middle-aged woman who said enthusiastically, "Do you want to buy piglets?"
I said, "Yes, how do you sell this pig?"
Before the middle-aged woman could speak, a pig broker came from the side, (the middleman who used to do business, similar to the current agent) This is a middle-aged man, and the clothes he wears are not clean.
He said, "You should take care of the pig first, and the price is easy to say." ”
I said, "That's it, that's it!"
As I spoke, the middle-aged man put his hand under his clothes and asked me to reach out too, and I said confusedly, "What does this mean?"
He said, "How much do you give?"
I said, "I don't understand this, can I just say the price?"
The middle-aged woman said: "I see that you are also sincere in buying, so let's follow the market." ”
It's the first time I've grown up to buy something, and I have to bargain, and I'm a little scared, but it's all come to this point, so I have a heartbreak and say: "We only have five cents and seven pounds there, I ran so far just to buy a good breed and keep it as a sow, you have to be too expensive!"
In fact, I don't know anything about our local market, so I guess it's blind.
The male agent spoke: "I see that the two of you are doing business sincerely, in this way, the eldest sister lowers a point, and the young man rises again, won't this business be done?" No one is along, take the middle price of six cents a catty, you say it's okay, right?"
The middle-aged woman said: "I can't pay the money, I have to pay him." Because I said that I had to pay five dimes as taxes, I said, "I will definitely not pay the money, or we will forget it, and I will look at other people's houses," he said, making a gesture to leave.
The male agent said: "It stands to reason that the buyer of the money will be paid, but I am good with the weigh, I will follow, so that no one will pay the money." ”
Seeing that people were so enthusiastic, I was embarrassed to say anything more, and after saying that I went elsewhere to give money, the middle-aged man also helped me put the pig on the wooden board of the bicycle and tie it up. After thanking me, I hurried back.
On a hot summer day, the sun scorched the earth, and the yellow sand on the road was hot, and there was no wind. I pedaled and pedaled the worn-out bike, wiping my sweat with my hands from time to time.
There were very few pedestrians on the road, and I was afraid that the piglets would be hot, so I tried to find the shade of the trees on the side of the road.
Halfway through, I was hungry and thirsty, and then I remembered that I still had what I ate last night, and I got up early this morning to rush to the county seat, and went to buy pigs, and I didn't even bother to drink saliva. Besides, I can't afford to buy food.
But the weather was too hot, and I sweated a lot, I was really thirsty, and then I found that there was a puddle of water at the root of a mountain, I quickly parked the car, and looked at the water's edge, there were a few weeds and leaves floating on the water, and I didn't care about the dirty, so I scratched the residual leaves with my hands, and held them together and drank them.
When you have drunk enough, you can stand up and see that there are a lot of sheep dung eggs under the water, and it turns out that this is a sheep herder used to drink sheep, alas, no matter what happens, just quench your thirst.
It took nearly three hours to get home, and when we got home, my wife and I quickly untied the piglets and put them in the pigsty. After putting it in, seeing that the little pig didn't get up, and his stomach was panting together, I said: "Let it lie down for a while, after tying it up for most of the day, it must be numb in its legs and feet, and I'm hungry enough, I'll drink a bowl of rice first." ”
The wife said, "I'll give you a hot one, don't spoil your stomach." ”
When my wife was heating the meal, I first took a cold vegetable cake and ate it, and at this time, the neighbor's sister-in-law came over, and the farmer, who heard that someone had bought a pig or a cow, wanted to come and have a look.
While eating the cake, I said to my sister-in-law: "Sister-in-law, how about you look at this pig? I counted, 16 nipples, very good." In this way, if you give birth to a piglet, you are not afraid of not having enough to eat......"
Before I could finish speaking, my sister-in-law suddenly exclaimed, "Aren't you going to buy a sow?
Hearing this, the wife also ran out of the kitchen, and everyone looked: No, it's really a boar, isn't it still standing and peeing?
My wife and sister-in-law immediately started laughing, looking at me while laughing.
I touched the back of my head and said embarrassedly, "I forgot to look at the male and female while counting the teats!" No wonder my buyer gave me a strange look when he heard me say he wanted to buy this sow. I was careless, I was careless!"
When I think about it, I can't complain about others, who let myself be sloppy? I made such a big joke, but it was not bad, the little pig was good at eating, and he had never been sick, and he had been fed for more than half a year and sold for more than 120 yuan. It can be regarded as a consolation for me to go hungry for a day!
Speaking of this now, my wife still laughs at me, but everyone has no malicious intentions, and people will inevitably do one or several ridiculous things inadvertently in their lives, and they don't need to pay too much attention to it. Even, at that time, I was quite proud of the way I worked hard to live a good life and to make my relatives live!