Cooking Tobacco (Prose)
In the early morning, when the chickens crowed three times, the sky was just numb, the village woke up, and a pillar of cooking smoke appeared from the chimney of every household, slowly rising, rising into the sky for half a day. Perhaps this cooking smoke will have an inseparable relationship with women, that posture is so gentle and gentle, the pure color is like breast milk, delicate and soft, giving people a warm and peaceful feeling. At this moment, it is not difficult to imagine the scene of the women in the kitchen wearing flower aprons and cooking on the fire at the pot table, and faintly hearing the collision of pots and pans. The wisps of cooking smoke mixed with the aroma of coarse grain mussels spread out and covered the entire village.
At this time, the sparrows under the eaves have also woken up, standing on the branches and chattering and making noises. The red rooster leads a flock of hens in the yard in search of food. The red rooster suddenly found a worm, reluctant to eat it, and lit the worm with its mouth, clucking and calling out to the hens. The hens hurriedly gathered around and scrambled to eat. Ducks croak and run all over the ground, and big white geese stretch their long necks and clamor for food. At this moment, the tofu smith of the production team drove a donkey cart all over the street and pulled a long voice to shout "bean - rotten." The loud voice filled the whole village. Hearing the shouting, the women who were busy cooking quickly left the work on the pot and hurried out with the porcelain pot filled with soybeans to change the tofu. One pound of soybeans for six pieces of large tofu. Men took advantage of the time before breakfast, carrying the water basket to the well to fetch water, there were many people fetching water, they needed to queue, and they couldn't stop squeaking and squeaking. Ergazi, who has always been optimistic, hummed a small song while carrying a water basket. Then the men took the time to shovel the small garden in front of the house and behind the house for a while. Otherwise, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers are about to bully the weeds.
When eating, the family sat cross-legged around the Kang table, where steaming sorghum rice, shallots mixed with tofu, lettuce dipped in sauce, and mustard knots and pickles were delicious. Men, women and children ate sweetly and their heads sweated.
After breakfast, the women rushed to brush the pots and wash the dishes, and the men carried swill buckets to the pigsty to feed the pigs, and the fat pig Krone was already hungry and was arching the door of the pigsty with his mouth. The in-laws are not idle, and they all help feed the chickens, ducks, geese and dogs.
At this time, the chimneys of each household had gradually stopped, and the remaining large green smoke had not yet dissipated, like a thin morning fog, and like a wispy floating cloud, on the low roof, the tops of the trees drifted and lingered. From a distance, the whole village looks like a fairy world. People can't help but think of Tao Yuanming's poem: "Ambiguous distant people's village, relying on the smoke in the ruins."
A busy morning passed. When the people heard the bell ringing of the production team, they quickly drank enough cold water and rushed to the production team with a full burp to assemble and prepare to shovel the ground. The boss of the whirlwind drove the horse to climb the plow and walked in the front, and the whip was crunching. The male laborers followed closely with hoes, and the female laborers walked on the wild road repeatedly with their hoes in pairs of laughter and laughter. Looking at the growing crops on both sides of the road, joy is in my heart, as if I have endless momentum. Women and men go separately, especially those big girls always have to be far away from the men, for fear that those big hooping masters will come out of their mouths with one or two rude words, and they will blush with shame when they hear them. The daughters-in-law got together and whispered to the women, or nagged about some oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. Xiaofang Xiaoli is two pure and clean big girls in the production team, walking with her companions, her footsteps bouncing and jumping, but she can be energetic. Behind him, two large, black and shiny braids swayed rhythmically from side to side, telling their wishes.
The cooking smoke was completely gone, and the children were bouncing around carrying school bags to school. Only the in-laws and mother-in-law are left at home with some bits and pieces. The doors of people without old people are locked, and only the big yellow dog is lying at the door looking at the door. At this time, the old pig's cry rang out on the street: "Pine - pig - come." So the old man or the children of each household drove their pigs into the street and sent them to the pigs, and their pigs followed the black-pressed pig procession to the meadow.
The village was calm again, and the streets were empty. The village is quiet.
Until the sun sets, the birds return to the nest into the forest, the people who go up the mountain to shovel the ground come back with a bundle of firewood or a handful of pig vegetables in their arm sockets, and the village slowly rises wisps of cooking smoke, mixed with the twilight mist, which is quiet and spectacular, adding a little life to the village at dusk.
For the croppers who work at sunrise and breathe day in and day, cooking smoke is the soul of the village and the most beautiful scenery in the countryside. It symbolizes the vitality of the village and also symbolizes the harmony of the family, the prosperity of the people, and the endless generations. No matter how busy people are, no matter how rough and flat the days are, they can't do without cooking tobacco, and the days without cooking smoke are life without life.
Author: Li Xiqun
Editor: Zhao Yi
Email: [email protected] (original debut)
Copyright Notice: This article is the original work of Nakago Mei and may not be reproduced without permission.