I had hardly eaten any snacks throughout my childhood, and even the daily meals a day were just a bowl of vegetables and porridge. A family of five eats a green vegetable around a small table, often eating half of the dishes and disappearing, so I have no choice but to pour the remaining soup into the rice and stir it, even then I can eat a big bowl.
Because it is far from the market, my mother only goes once every ten days and half a month, and only buys back essential products like lard, salt, and monosodium glutamate, and occasionally buys some broken pears and apples to relieve our hunger. The pears and apples were rotten in half, and the stall owner cut off the rotten parts and sold them cheaply. But being able to eat such a rotten apple is enough to make us happy for a while.
In those years of poverty, what now seems so inconspicuous, even as a lowly little snack, is something we can't ask for. Like Fuqingguang Cake, when I was a child, there was a Fuqing Brother in the neighboring county who would ride an old-fashioned bicycle every day, cross the mountain and cross the border to our side to sell, carrying two large baskets of light cakes between villages.
Every time Brother Fuqing came to our village, it was almost noon, and I also came home from school. As soon as I heard Brother Fuqing's shouting, I immediately ran from inside the house to the outside, stood alone in the doorway, and watched with sad eyes as Brother Fuqing's light cake went farther and farther away from under my eyes. Fuqingge's light cake is divided into two kinds, one is not stuffed inside, one is a dime, and the other is stuffed, one is three cents.
At that time, Grandpa was still alive and often basked in the sun at the door on crutches. Once, when I came home from school, I saw my grandfather waving to me from a distance, and then I smiled and squinted and took out two light cakes with residual warmth from the pocket of Zhongshan suit, although it was the kind without filling, it was enough for a poor child like us who lacked food and clothing. Now, Grandpa has been dead for thirty years, and his image is becoming more and more blurred, but when I think of all kinds of light cakes, Grandpa's image immediately becomes clear in my heart and feels warm. Once, when I saw a child standing under the eaves of the door, clutching a large light cake in his hand, and eating it with relish, I was simply stunned, envious to death, and could not help but sadly ask myself: When will I be able to eat a light cake with filling?
One day when I came home from school, I was surprised to see Fuqing Geguang cake cart parked in front of the door of the ancestral hall, and from the gap in the hidden door, a group of people were surrounding a table of eight immortals, and from time to time there were laments and shouts. The familiar Fu Qing brother was standing on the outskirts of the crowd, tiptoeing his neck out and trying to get into the crowd. They were gambling on Pai Gow, which I knew, but it was something I couldn't have imagined when Brother Fuqing threw the light cake cart outside.
I sat on the stone slab against the wall in front of the ancestral hall, and the autumn afternoon sun was still as fierce as summer, and the sun was hot on my face. From time to time in the breeze, the smell of the light cake being baked, I could not help but step forward, the light cake in the sunlight, emitting a seductive color, full, round, I could almost see the light cake covered with sesame seeds inside the seaweed and minced meat, several times I wanted to reach over and retreat. Lying in bed at night, unable to sleep for a long time, thinking about the scene during the day, when it was obvious that there was no one around, as long as I reached out, wouldn't I be able to get the pie with the pies I had always dreamed of? A trace of remorse arose. Therefore, I thought in my heart, if Brother Fuqing still puts the light cake outside tomorrow, he must go and get one, no, two.
The next day, when I came home from school at noon, I saw Fuqing's light cake cart in the distance, still parked in yesterday's position. I hurriedly threw down my bag, ran to the door of the ancestral hall, and sat on the stone slab. Brother Fuqing also poked his head out of the crack in the door from time to time. There was no one around, and I decided to start acting the next time Brother Fuqing retracted his head. The moment was quiet and terrible, as if the whole world had stopped running, and my heartbeat was like a diesel engine with enough throttle to run wildly, as if it was about to explode my chest.
I stared intently at the crack in the door, and at the moment when Brother Fuqing retracted his head, I stepped forward to the light cake cart with an arrow, grabbed two light cakes and went into the alley and ran into the trail to the back mountain, that day I seemed to run unusually fast, almost like a gust of wind, and every few steps I looked back to see if anyone was catching up. After making sure it was safe, I turned into the grove by the road, took the light cake out of my pocket, and held it in my hand with a pious mood, which should be the same as burning incense in the temple. The light cake with filling is thin in crust, more crispy to eat than the unfilled, and most importantly, it has a strong sauce flavor in the mouth. At that time, I felt that I was the happiest person in the world, and I thought that there should be nothing happier in this world than eating seaweed light cake.
Soon the two light cakes were in the stomach, and there was still the lingering aroma of meat sauce between the lips and teeth. Walking out of the woods, it was as if the whole person had just returned from heaven to the earth, feeling that the air was fresher than ever, the sun was much softer, and the unknown insects were singing in the grass, feeling that everything was so beautiful.
When I became an adult, I rarely saw a vendor selling light cakes along the street, and sometimes I would buy a piece of it, but I could no longer eat the taste of my childhood.