Text: Summer of Roses Material: Liu Wendong
I was born in the mountains of northern Anhui, and I am the second oldest in my family, with an older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister.
At that time, supplies were scarce, food was rationed, and each family's rations were carefully calculated. When I was in junior high school, I had to wake up early with my eldest brother, and my mother would grind the corn kernels into flour one night in advance and boil them into porridge in the morning.
There is no running water at home, so I have to go to the well at the head of the village every day to fetch water. My mother always got up early, carried a bucket of water, and walked down the muddy path to fetch the family for a day's worth of water. In winter, the well water is warm, but when I go home and put it aside for a while, it is bitterly cold, and my mother's hands are always red from the cold when she cooks.
Although you can drink porridge in the morning, the corn porridge is so thin that you can almost see a human figure, and you can hardly feel any rice grains in your mouth, only a faint smell of corn.
The side dish is a small plate of pickles, and my mother will cut a ball of black pickles into shreds, add a little salt, and mix it a little to make it a dish.
The food in the evening was a little better, you could eat stir-fried vegetables. Vegetables are mainly grown in our own fields, such as potatoes and cabbage, which are durable vegetables, and we will eat them all winter.
When I reached the age of growing my body, what I wanted most was to eat meat. But meat is a rarity, and you can only eat a little bit during the New Year's holidays or when there are guests at home. At that time, pork was purchased by ticket, and the quantity was limited. During the Chinese New Year, my mother bought a small piece of pork, worried that our four children would grab it, so she divided the meat in advance and put it in our bowl during the meal.
I was reluctant to eat, so I finished the meal every time and ate the meat last. But even so, not having enough to eat is the norm. I remember one time when it rained in the village for several days in a row, and all the crops in the fields were flooded.
During that time, we ate Wowotou almost all of our meals, and Wowotou was very hard, and after eating, our stomach was uncomfortable, and we would be uncomfortable for several days.
At that time, the most important thing the boys in the village wanted to do was to become soldiers when they grew up, because being a soldier was the only chance for us rural children to change their fate at that time.
My eldest brother is 2 years older than me, and when he was conscripted in 170, he decisively signed himself up. Unfortunately, the results of the medical examination were not satisfactory.
When he was young, the eldest brother accidentally fell into a fire pit, leaving a deep scar on his right shoulder. This scar does not affect the daily work, and we all forget about it after a long time. Although the eldest brother knew, he thought that after so many years, the traces of the scar had faded a little, so he had the mentality of giving it a try. It's a pity that the conscription physical examination is very strict, and the eldest brother is still brushed off.
In 172, my father pinned his hopes on me, but fortunately, I successfully passed the physical examination, political examination and home visits, and successfully enlisted in the army.
On the day I left home, my mother made my favorite bacon fried bamboo shoots, which is a rare dish. During the meal, my mother kept bringing me vegetables and asking me to eat more. I'm gone, and I don't know when I'll be back.
Although my mother tried her best not to cry, she couldn't help crying when she saw me change into a military uniform.
In the winter of 1972, I stepped through the barracks and became a recruit. Every morning before dawn, I have to get up and go out to exercise, and at the end of the day, I am so tired that my bones are falling apart. In the army, I experienced many firsts. The first time I shot a target, the first time I stood guard, and the first time I participated in a drill......
Every day is a lot of physical labor, and hunger is fast, but the life of the army is not much better than at home.
We ate a big pot of rice, and the dishes were monotonous, basically potatoes, cabbage and radishes in turn. Every time we eat, the squad leader sends a person to carry the vegetables in the bucket to the yard, and we recruits each have a bowl in our hands, standing there, scooping the spoon into the pot, and what we can eat depends on luck.
Because oil and salt are very expensive, there is basically no oil and water in the dish, and it is bland and tasteless in the mouth.
The cooking method of these dishes is also simple, which is to wash the vegetables, cut them into large pieces, throw them into a pot, add a little salt and water and cook them. Without the current seasonings and cooking techniques, the taste is naturally much worse. But none of us felt bitter at that time.
Most of the recruits in our company are children of poor families, although the food is not good, but it is much better than the hard nest in the hometown, and occasionally you can eat multigrain steamed buns, and you can eat pork once in the event of a big event, and you are content.
We will eat poorly, and the living conditions will not be good. We were five people crammed into a large room and slept in the bunk, and we didn't even dare to turn over when we slept at night, for fear of waking up our comrades-in-arms next to us. In winter, the window leaked, and the instructor pasted the window with newspaper, but the cold wind blew through the crack in the door and into the house, so we were so cold that we had to wrap the quilt tightly and stay next to each other.
Occasionally, when I feel hard, I think about my family. Thinking about them gives me motivation again. In order to get ahead, I worked hard to practice my physical fitness and used my spare time to learn cultural knowledge on my own. If there are no books, it is like a comrade-in-arms borrowing a book to read, and if there is no textbook, he borrows the notes of his comrades-in-arms to copy it.
My dedication was seen by everyone, and the next year I was elected class president and worked harder. The company commander and instructor were optimistic about me and always gave me encouragement.
In my third year of enlistment, I received a letter from home during my heavy training. The letter was written by the eldest brother, and the eldest brother said that he hadn't written to me for half a year, because something had happened at home. My mother fainted from a cerebral infarction while taking a bath in the bathhouse, but fortunately, the girl who received the bath ticket found it in time and helped send her mother to the hospital.
The girl also visited her once while her mother was in the hospital. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have seen our mother. He has been taking care of his mother for half a year, and he hasn't thought about whether to tell me or not, so he hasn't replied. Now that my mother is recovering well and can get out of bed and walk around, she decided to tell me what happened.
His mother asked him to buy something to thank the girl, but when he heard that the girl was unmarried and had no partner, he was afraid of what others would say, so he didn't think about how to thank them.
Seeing that my mother was well, I let go of my hanging heart, and at the same time, I also thanked this girl for her kindness.
I immediately took out the allowance I had saved and wrote a letter asking my eldest brother to give these things to the third sister, who would pass them on to the girl on her behalf to express my gratitude.
However, the girl did not accept my money and wrote me back. The handwriting in the letter was beautiful and the language was simple, which made me have an inexplicable liking for her. Although we had never met, I was deeply touched by her kindness and innocence, and I felt the urge to meet her.
In 1976, I was fortunate enough to be promoted to a job and received family leave because of my outstanding performance in the army. At that time, my company commander saw that I was not young, so he wanted to match me with a matchmaker, and the other party was a female doctor with very good conditions.
However, I was thinking about the girl who received the bath ticket in my heart. I thought, if I could, go home and see her, no matter what the outcome was, I at least tried hard and had no regrets. So, I politely declined the company commander's kindness.
When I returned to my hometown and pushed open the familiar door, my mother's figure came into my sight. She was sitting in the yard busy with her work, and I called "Mom" softly. My mother turned around and saw me, a flash of surprise in her eyes.
"Son, you're back!" the mother's voice choked up.
I nodded, my eyes moistened. That day, I sat and chatted with my family until it was almost dawn.
On the third day of my visit, after I had rested, I went to find the girl who had saved my mother. She was not tall, slightly chubby, with two ponytails, and her eyes were bright like stars when she smiled.
I bought two bags of dim sum for her and treated her to a bowl of ravioli. That day, we talked a lot, from my mother's illness to my life in the army, from her childhood to her vision for the future, and I found that our hearts seemed to have some kind of wonderful fit.
During the visit, I often picked her up from work, and when she was not busy, I took her to the market, and gradually, we came together.
She is a virtuous and diligent woman, she took good care of my parents after marriage, and she also loves my younger brothers and sisters very much.
In 1985, I returned to my hometown and lived with my family. Fifteen years ago, we grew vegetables in our hometown, and our lives gradually improved, and we also saved some money for retirement.
Now, the parents have passed away, and the children have grown up to live their own little lives. My wife and I help take care of the children in our spare time, travel, and our lives are complete.