Narrator: Wang Guifen
Source: Stories of people around you.
My name is Wang Guifen, I was born in a small village along the Huai River, where the terrain is low-lying, and there are nine floods in ten years, so girls are reluctant to marry in, and our village is a famous singles village.
My grandfather's family was very poor, he had two sons and a daughter, my uncle found a disabled woman, my mother and my aunt were two parents, and my aunt married my uncle.
I was born in the late 60s, and when I was 3 years old, my mother got sick and went to the clinic for injections, but she got a "reverse injection" and passed away before she could leave the clinic.
Dad took me alone, and I can imagine how difficult the days were, but fortunately, I had grandparents to help me.
My grandmother's feet are very small, but my grandmother is very industrious, tiptoeing every day, either digging wild vegetables or cutting pigweed.
My grandmother loves me very much, and always secretly stuffs some delicious food for me, and tells me not to show it to my uncle's children.
At that time, I was poor, and my grandmother's house didn't have anything to eat, it was nothing more than a boiled sweet potato or a multigrain steamed bun, every time my grandmother came to my house, she put her hand in the sleeve cage, and I knew that she had brought me something delicious.
My father was only 26 years old when my mother left, and my grandmother asked people to give my father a personal object, but many unmarried men in our village couldn't find a wife, let alone Dad's situation?
In this era, there were many people begging for food, although we lacked food and drink, every time the family came to beg, my grandmother would ask me to grab a handful of dried sweet potatoes for them, because my hands were small.
Grandma said, "They are all poor, if they give too much, they can't be disappointed when people come up to worship the door." ”
In the winter of the year when I was eight years old, there was a heavy snow outside, and people were hiding in the house, and the wind was swishing through the cracks in the door, and people shivered from the cold.
Grandma looked at the snow outside and sighed, "This white staring sky, I want to freeze to death!" said as she held a stick against the door.
Just then, a begging woman came out of the snow, her eyes glazed and her clothes ragged, this one holding a stick in one hand and a broken enamel jar in the other.
Grandma immediately welcomed her into the house, and I habitually ran to the dirt hoard and grabbed a handful of dried sweet potatoes.
Grandma took the enamel jar in the woman's hand, gave her a spoonful of sweet potato tea, handed it to her, and said, "It's so cold outside, hurry up and drink it while it's hot!"
The woman took the sweet potato tea and stared at the cornmeal buns on the table, at that time my family ate sweet potatoes three times a day, and rarely ate steamed buns.
Occasionally, when eating a steamed bun, grandma is also good, according to the head of each person, grandma always picks the smallest steamed wedge for herself.
I was a little protective of food, and when I saw the woman staring at the steamed bun, I picked up the steamed bun plaque, and there was still a steamed bun in the plaque, and my grandmother hadn't eaten it yet!
Grandma turned around and grabbed me, reached out and picked up the bun and handed it to the begging woman, and pulled out a stool for her to sit down and eat slowly.
Seeing the woman gobbling up, the grandmother sighed and said, "Oh my God, when will the poor be fed?"
Grandma and the woman chatted while eating, the woman said that she was from Henan, and her hometown was flooded, so she left her daughter out to beg for food, and they came out with a total of five people, and they were separated while walking, and the woman cried while talking.
Only then did I notice that the woman was wearing a thin dress, and her shoes were showing her toes.
Seeing the woman crying, the grandmother also cried, the grandmother has a bodhisattva heart all her life, and she can't see the hard-working people.
After eating and drinking, the woman thanked her and left, and when she left, her grandmother gave her a padded jacket that her mother wore when she got married, and her grandmother asked her where she lived.
During that time, women often appeared in the village, and every time they passed by my house, my grandmother would give her something to eat, and when she left, she would grab a handful of dried sweet potatoes.
Women are also very good, sometimes when they get white steamed buns, they send them to me to eat.
Seeing that the Chinese New Year was approaching, the woman was still staying in our village and did not leave, and that day the woman came to our house to beg for food, and her grandmother asked her: It's almost the New Year, why don't you go home yet?
The woman covered her face and cried, she told her grandmother that she was 28 years old this year, the man had been sick and had been dead for 2 years, she had a son, and she usually took her son to the past, and the man had borrowed a debt for medical treatment, and he had not paid it off, and he was afraid of being asked for debts when he went back.
The woman cried as she spoke, and her grandmother accompanied her to wipe her tears......
In the blink of an eye, there were still a few days before the New Year, but the woman suddenly disappeared, and my grandmother was a little worried and took me to the cowshed to have a look.
It turned out that the woman was sick, she was lying on the bed with chapped lips and her face was burned red, and her grandmother went home and took a few white pills for her to eat, and then went home and rolled a bowl of noodles for her, which moved the woman to tears.
Grandma saw that she was homeless, so she tentatively said: You are quite pitiful alone, I have a son who is very good, and my daughter-in-law has passed away for a few years, I feel that you are quite a good match, if you want, stay at my house and don't leave.
The woman was a little hesitant at the time, but she couldn't stand the persuasion of her grandmother, and promised to take a look, and the grandmother told the woman: My son is building a river dam outside, and he will be back in a few days.
On the day my father came back, my grandmother specially cleaned up the woman, washed her hair, and let her put on her mother's flower cotton jacket.
The woman took a fancy to her father at a glance, and my grandmother let the woman live in my house that night.
That year, the Spring Festival woman lived in my house, and my grandmother ran to the supply and marketing cooperative, tore two pieces of cloth, made a dress for her, and weighed a pound of fruit candy to disperse.
The woman's name is Benxiu, and my grandmother asked me to call her Aunt Xiu.
Aunt Xiu is very capable, and she treats me as her own, and my grandmother likes her from the bottom of her heart.
At that time, it was still a production team, Aunt Xiu went out to work during the day, and after finishing work, she cut a basket of grass and handed it over to the production team, and the people in the village praised Grandma for being blessed, and picked up a beautiful daughter-in-law for nothing, and she was so capable.
I don't remember what my mother looked like, but I heard from the neighbors that Aunt Xiu was prettier than my mother.
may have lacked maternal love since I was a child, I don't reject Aunt Xiu at all, and Aunt Xiu will take me wherever she goes.
I was afraid of the cold in winter, so Aunt Xiu made me cotton shoes and sewed a pair of cotton gloves from cotton.
In the summer, I couldn't sleep in the heat, so she let me lie in her arms and shake a fan for me.
Seeing me and Aunt Xiu so close, my father was also very happy, being Aunt Xiu is a treasure.
Aunt Xiu not only treated me well, but also didn't say anything to my grandmother and father, and got along well with the neighbors, since she got married, the three adobe houses were cleaned up by her, the tables and stools were polished and shiny, and the neighbors liked to come to our house to chat, and our home became an intelligence center.
Aunt Xiu's hands are very skillful, the soles of her shoes are upright, not twisted or warped, and the size of the stitches is uniform, and Dad wears them out and is praised by everyone.
The embroidered shoes she made for me are beautiful, the children envy me, she can also embroider insoles, and our village people say that marrying her is a blessing from my father's three lives.
In 79, the production responsibility system was implemented, and our family divided more than ten acres of land and became the owner of the land.
Grandma didn't dislike her because Aunt Xiu gave birth to a girl, she was still very good to her, the eggs of the old hen at home, grandma saved up, and left Aunt Xiu to eat in confinement, in that era, an egg was exchanged for a pound of salt, and she was reluctant to eat eggs during confinement.
I also love my sister very much, and I don't dare to leave by the bedside, for fear that others will take her away.
Every day after school, I picked up my sister to play, at this time Aunt Xiu pretended to beat me, she said, "Let my sister sleep for a few more months, get up now, the spring is busy in the fields, and my sister has no one to take me." ”
My sister was brought up by me when she was a child, and in the eyes of outsiders, she didn't know that we weren't born to the same mother, and others didn't know that Aunt Xiu was my stepmother.
Our family's life is getting better and better, and the only regret is that Aunt Xiu injured her uterus when she gave birth to her sister, and she didn't get pregnant later.
Aunt Xiu also has unhappy times, I often see him sitting in the yard with tears in his eyes, I know she is homesick.
Aunt Xiu often said in front of me, "I don't know if your brother is doing well, does he have anything to eat, does he have any books to read?"
But I didn't understand it when I was a child, why didn't Aunt Xiu go home?
In the summer when I was 14 years old, an incident happened that tore happiness apart.
The weather was very hot that summer, Dad and Aunt Xiu went to the grain station to pay the public grain, Aunt Xiu carried a bag of grain to the grain "mountain" when she poured, she left a little careful eye, she grabbed the two corners of the pocket with her hands, leaving two handfuls of grain, but happened to be found by the staff of the grain station.
He grabbed Aunt Xiu and ridiculed her in public, there were many people at the grain station, and there were some acquaintances from the same village, everyone gathered around at once, Aunt Xiu's face was red with shame, and she lowered her head and cried.
At this time, Dad went up and said good things, and the staff beat Dad fiercely, and said that they would lock up Aunt Xiu and let Dad take money to ransom people.
Aunt Xiu is an honest rural woman who is illiterate, how can she go through such a formation, this can frighten her, thinking that she has made some unforgivable mistake.
Aunt Xiu ran away while people were unprepared, no one knew where she went, and her father begged the people in the village for help, but she couldn't find it for a few days.
Aunt Xiu disappeared like this, and Dad remembered that after so many years with her, he only knew that she was from Henan, and he didn't know anything else.
Since then, the family has lost laughter, and the four-year-old sister cries and shouts every day to find her mother.
Dad loves Aunt Xiu very much, Aunt Xiu has been married for so many years, the two of them respect each other like guests, work together, and have never blushed, he doesn't believe that Aunt Xiu will leave him and this family, he is more worried about what will happen to Aunt Xiu.
At that time, I was just in the first year of junior high school, and after Aunt Xiu left, I came back from school to take my sister and help my grandmother with housework.
Dad has also changed, borrowing wine all day to drown his sorrows, drinking too much and sitting at the entrance of the village, facing the northwest in a daze, he knows that that direction is Aunt Xiu's home, if Aunt Xiu comes back, he can see it for the first time.
Grandma also washes her face with tears all day long, Aunt Xiu has been married to the door for so many years, grandma treats her as a daughter, she also treats grandma as her own mother, and suddenly there is one less person in the family, and grandma is not used to anything.
Especially when I saw my father borrowing wine all day long to drown his sorrows, ignoring the family, my grandmother was even more angry.
When I got out of school that day, I saw my father alone at home, he held his head in his hands, kept tearing his hair with both hands, crying and shouting Aunt Xiu's name, and lost a wine bottle on the ground next to him, I knew that my father had drunk too much.
Aunt Xiu has been in our family for six years, and the two of them have been in love with each other, and this companionship has become family affection, soaked into the bones, but now she is leaving quietly, life and death are uncertain, and Dad can't accept it at all.
Soon it was winter, and Aunt Xiu had not yet appeared, so there were rumors in the village, some people said that Aunt Xiu had done something wrong and ran away without face, some people said that Aunt Xiu wanted to go home with her children, and some people said that Aunt Xiu thought that the family was too poor and got married.
No one knows exactly what the reason is.
Every night after dinner, Dad sat in front of the door with a small stool, his eyes looking northwest, I knew that he couldn't forget Aunt Xiu, and it had become Dad's habit to wait for Aunt Xiu to come home.
Dad kept saying that Aunt Xiu would come back sooner or later, because she was so kind, it was impossible to lose her sister.
In the midst of thinking and waiting, winter is coming, the northwest wind is blowing, and Dad still goes to the village entrance every day to wait.
On the day of the New Year, during the meal, my father cried with a bowl, and my grandmother sighed and said, "There are still a few days before the New Year, if Benxiu wants to come back, he will definitely return before the Spring Festival, if he doesn't come back during the Spring Festival, there is no hope." ”
Dad said, "If she doesn't come back for a day, I'll wait for her for a day, I'm sure she'll come back, I know her as a person, she has done so much for this family, not to mention that we still have children." ”
The next morning it snowed again, and the ground was white.
The snow fell heavily for many days, and there was no intention of stopping.
At dinner that day, my father told my grandmother: I dreamed that Benxiu came back last night, and I had a hunch that she would definitely come back in the next two days.
Grandma sighed and said, "It's good to be back! ”
After a good meal, my sister and I pestered my dad to help us build a snowman, and my dad left without coming back, and my sister and I chased after our butts.
Dad walked to the entrance of the village and stopped, and I asked Dad to accompany us to start a snowball fight, but Dad was absent-minded and looked at the entrance of the village.
My sister and I were playing energetically, and my father suddenly touched me with his hand and said, "Guifen, look at the two people on the road, is that taller Aunt Xiu?" Dad rubbed his eyes as he spoke.
The ground was white and expansive, very dazzling, and I couldn't see it clearly.
Following the direction of my father's finger, I saw a woman walking towards me with a child, and I smiled and said, "Dad, you want Aunt Xiu to be crazy! ”
Dad smiled awkwardly and didn't speak, but he didn't take his eyes back.
Suddenly, I heard a voice shouting "Xiuju, Changlin", this voice is very familiar, it is Aunt Xiu.
In an instant, two lines of hot tears rolled down my father's cheeks, he reached out and grabbed his sister's arm, and ran forward with his sister, and I followed closely behind, shouting "Aunt Xiu is back." ”
Aunt Xiu also rushed over, crying and shouting her sister's name.
The three of them hugged each other tightly, Aunt Xiu let go of her crying, and her sister may have been frightened and cried.
When I saw them crying, I couldn't help but cry.
Aunt Xiu also brought a boy who looked about my age, and kept staring at us with a pair of timid eyes.
Aunt Xiu stretched out her hand, pulled the boy over, pointed at me and said, "This is your sister Xiufen." ”
pointed to his father and said, "This is your uncle, and he is holding his sister Xiuju in his arms." "The boy was a little shy and kept his head down and didn't dare to look at us.
When our family appeared in front of my grandmother in a neat manner, my grandmother took Aunt Xiu in her arms and cried and shouted, "Thank God! ”
Aunt Xiu pulled the boy over and said, "Little Bing, shout and call grandma." ”
The boy hung his head very low and whispered, "Grandma."
Grandma pulled Xiaobing and said, "Good boy, this will be your home in the future, and I will be your own grandmother." ”
That night, the three adults talked for a long time, and then I learned what happened from my grandmother.
That day, Aunt Xiu was in trouble at the grain station, and she ran away worried about her father.
The grain station is not far from the station, she was also scared stupid, so she got on the car to the county seat, and when she arrived at the county seat, she found that in addition to going back to Henan, she really didn't know where to go, and she also missed the child, so she bought a ticket home.
After returning home, I learned that after she left, Xiaobing lived with her grandparents and uncles, and later her uncle got married and had his own children.
The aunt felt sorry for Xiaobing, so she took him over, but the uncle nagged all day long that the aunt was nosy, so the two had a discord, and Xiaobing was kicked around like a ball.
Later, Xiaobing was sent back to his grandmother's house, and his aunt secretly sent money for Xiaobing to study.
After Aunt Xiu went home, the house was also occupied by the brother-in-law, and he lived in his mother-in-law's house for a while, she wanted to come back, but she didn't dare to go back, she wanted to take the child away, and her mother-in-law was reluctant.
A few days ago, because of the child's matter, the younger brother-in-law beat the mother-in-law, and the mother-in-law was angry and asked Aunt Xiu to take the child away.
Aunt Xiu agreed, and when she left, she knelt down and kowtowed to her mother-in-law three times, promising that her mother-in-law would bring the child back to see her every year.
Aunt Xiu said with tears in her eyes, "Mom, I'm sorry for you, I took it upon myself to bring the child over, and I didn't say hello to you." ”
Grandma smiled and said, "It's a natural thing for a child to be with his mother, and besides, a boy doesn't eat gossip, and a dew drops on a grass tree." ”
Aunt Xiu turned to look at her father, who smiled and said, "Don't think about it, our family is missing a son." ”
At the beginning of school that year, my father arranged a school for Xiaobing, and according to Xiaobing's grandmother's request, Xiaobing was still called by his original name.
Xiaobing came, Aunt Xiu was even more desperate to live with her father, she asked her father to learn to hatch chicks with relatives, set up a kang house by herself, and made a lot of money selling chicken seedlings in the first year.
With their efforts, the kang house is getting bigger and bigger, not only selling chicken seedlings, but also opening a small chicken farm.
Aunt Xiu and Dad raised my three siblings on the chicken farm, Aunt Xiu when I was my own daughter, I also changed my name to call Mom, Xiaobing began to call Dad from the day he came, Dad also took Xiaobing as his own son, and Grandma also took Xiaobing as his own grandson.
In 87, I was admitted to the teacher's college, and after graduation, I returned to the town primary school to teach, and later met a teacher from this school, we got married, and in 96 was transferred to the town middle school.
In 89, Xiaobing also took the teacher's college, and after graduation, he married the daughter of the town mayor, and Xiaobing worked very hard at work, and now he has become the principal of the middle school, and he will retire in a few years.
My sister was admitted to university, after graduating from college, she married to Beijing, her husband's Beijinger, the two of them lived very happily, and our family became the first person in the village to change their fate by knowledge.
In 12 years, my grandmother passed away, and the whole funeral was organized by Xiaobing with his father, and according to local customs, Xiaobing completed the entire funeral ceremony as his own grandson.
Mom and Dad are now the happiest old people in the village, because Dad is not in good health, the chicken farm has long been gone, and most of the two people's pensions are responsible for the small soldiers, sometimes we give money, and he is still angry, he says that he is the eldest son, and he should be responsible for these things.
Xiaobing said that when he retires, he will go back to the countryside to accompany his parents, his father gave him today, and he wants to make his father happy for the rest of his life.
Raising grace is greater than giving birth, I think the blessings of this family are brought by Aunt Xiu, and when she is old, I want to serve her like a mother.
You raise me young, I raise you old, and you must have a conscience.