Crossing the Unknown Country

The eldest brother Su Feng finally chopped enough firewood, tied it into a big bundle, stuffed short branches into the basket, put the big bundle on the basket, and took his younger brothers and sisters back home. The eldest brother bent over and carried the firewood. Seeing him carrying such heavy firewood at such a young age, Su He felt a little distressed. If he were in elementary school in modern times, he would only be eight years old. Because of malnutrition, he was thin and small, so he looked younger than modern children. The second brother was only six years old and also carried a big basket. Only she carried a pocket basket.

It is true that children from poor families grow up early. These three little ones helped with many housework at home. When they saw grass fruit on the road, the second brother picked a handful and gave it to Su He to eat. Su He ate the sweet and sour fruit and thanked his brother loudly. He ran to feed a few to the eldest brother and a few to the second brother, and the three of them happily rushed home.

Spring is so nice. There are wild fruits and various wild flowers on the road from time to time. Su He picked a bunch of them and put them in the house when she got home. She saw a strange-shaped stone on the road and picked it up, preparing to put it in the cup to press the flower branches. The eldest brother couldn't help her pick flowers, so the second brother helped her pick flowers because he liked to see different ones. In this way, the two of them went home with a bouquet of flowers each. The villagers they met on the road laughed at the two children. These flowers are not for eating or drinking, so what's the point of picking them? There are not many things in the wild. I want to see them everywhere when I go out of the house and head to the mountains.

Su He didn't argue with them. They didn't understand that this was spiritual food. It would be comfortable to put it in the house and look at it. It would make you feel good and work more energetically. Thinking that there seemed to be no cup at home, he probably had to make one himself with a small wooden stick.

They were so tired that they dragged their exhausted bodies back home. The eldest and second brothers took off their backpacks and sat directly on the steps, panting and resting. Su He was fine, she was not too tired from carrying too much, so she went to her eldest brother's backpack to find some branches two feet long. Then she went to the house to find some hemp ropes that his mother used to make shoe soles, and tied them together one by one. Finally, she found a thick wood and asked her eldest brother to cut off a piece with an axe. The bottom was tied together with it as a circle, and a simple vase was made. She went to the vegetable garden to dig a little soil, and inserted the flowers in a staggered manner, and put stones on the soil, which looked beautiful at first glance. Finally, Su He simply went to her mother's sewing basket, found a colorful cloth strip, tied it to the outside of the branch and tied a bow, which made it more beautiful. There was another bouquet of flowers, and then she made another one and inserted the flowers in the same way. Su He inserted the remaining flowers on the fence wall, which looked very beautiful.

The two brothers watched their sister busying herself there, and the three of them started working together. When the two vases were ready and the flowers were arranged, Su Feng and Su Run looked at Su He and praised her: "Niuniu is so smart. The flowers look so beautiful when arranged like this."

Su He quickly said to his brothers: "Brother, Niuniu has grown up, you have to call her by her full name from now on, and you can't call her by her nickname anymore."

The eldest and second brother nodded together and agreed to call Su He by name in the future. The three of them looked at the two bouquets of flowers and discussed where to put them. Su He went straight to her brother's room with one bouquet in her arms. After looking for a long time, she found no place to put them. There was only a large earthen kang and a small kang table in the room, and nothing else. The windowsill was also narrow. Usually the lamp was placed on the kang table, but when sleeping, the kang table needed to be placed on the ground. Su He asked her brother to get some pieces of wood, just a few that were one foot long. The second brother ran back and got them. He asked his brother to chop them into a pointed shape with a knife, and asked the eldest brother to nail them diagonally into the crack in the wall. He went to find a piece of rope, tied the vase together, made a slightly longer handle, and hung it up, and it was perfectly hung on the wall. Instantly, the room looked a lot better, and it even had a poetic feel.

Then they went to another room and did the same thing, hanging vases. The three of them hung the vases happily, stared at them for a long time, and then went out to work. At that time, they had two meals a day, no lunch, so they didn't have to cook, and their parents didn't come home. They started feeding the chickens, catching insects and weeding in the vegetable garden, and sweeping the floor.

After all the work was done, Su Feng and Su Run went to the fields to help their parents, leaving Su He alone at home. She happily told her brothers that she was learning to weave at home, and they could go without worry. The two brothers were worried, and finally locked her up at home before leaving.