Dreaming of 1988, I have the ability to see ghosts and ghosts

In the morning, my grandmother held my hand and carried two buckets. It took more than an hour to walk to the town to sell the fish and eels.

Of course, it only took the adults more than 40 minutes to walk from the village to the town, but because of me, my grandmother had to walk slowly on the road.

"Grandma, are you tired?"

I often looked at my grandmother with pity and asked her in my innocent baby voice.

"Grandma isn't tired, but is my Feng'er tired?"

Grandma laughed.

"I'm not tired. I can walk."

Even though my feet were sore, I always endured the pain and acted casually in order not to worry grandma.

Today is the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar in 1988, my 2th birthday. Not long after my grandmother passed away, I got up.

Looking at my frail 12-year-old self in the mirror, I silently accepted the reality of traveling here.

It was not long after the Spring Festival and the vegetables in the fields had just been watered, so there were actually no eels in the cages.

Because the nets hadn't caught many fish in the past few days, grandma decided to give it a try and put down a dozen cages last night.

After my grandma came back with a big bag of cages on her back, I also got up.

"Feng'er, why did you get up so early? Why don't you sleep a little longer?" Grandma put down the cage on her back and asked kindly.

"I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I got up." I said with a smile.

"Grandma, I told you not to put the cage down last night. It's still cold now, and I'm afraid you won't be able to catch any eels."

I said with a hint of reproach, feeling distressed as I helped the baby empty the cage.

"It doesn't matter. We are all free anyway. Maybe there is one. Here is one, haha!"

A small eel rolled out of the cage that grandma overturned, and she was very surprised.

"Alas, it's a pity that it's too small. Let's let it go!" Grandma felt very sorry.

There were more than a dozen cages, all of which were emptied, and there was only that small eel.

Grandma picked up the bucket and poured the water and the little yellow eel in the bucket into the field next to my house. The little yellow eel twisted its body and swam away happily.

"Well, I'd better wait a while before putting the cage down. Feng'er, today is your birthday. I'll wash the cage first, and then cook you a bowl of birthday noodles and beat two eggs."

Grandma turned around and said to me with a smile.

"Grandma, take a rest. I will cook for myself later."

I didn’t want to make grandma too tired. She had just walked a long way to collect the cages. I turned around and wanted to go to the kitchen.

Grandma grabbed me and said

"Feng'er, today is your birthday, how can I let you cook by yourself!"

"Okay then, I'll help you wash the cage and cook noodles together."

I knew I couldn't persuade my grandma, so I had to do it with her.

We washed the cage together in the small pond in front of the door. The water was still quite cold in February, and my grandmother's and my hands were frozen red.

After finally finishing the washing, grandma took my hand and put it into her cotton-padded jacket that had turned yellow from washing and said softly:

"Feng'er, you must be cold. Come here, let grandma warm you up."

"It's okay, grandma, we can go light a fire and it won't be cold anymore."

I pulled my hand out of grandma's hand and pulled her towards the kitchen.

After entering the kitchen, grandma took an aluminum ladle, scooped a ladle of water from the water tank next to her and poured it into the pot to wash it.

I skillfully picked up a straw handle placed at the stove door, struck it with a match on the pile, and lit it.

He then picked up the fire fork standing upright next to him and put it into the stove, while also scraping away the ashes inside to create a little space.

At that time, every household used the straw left over from threshing the millet for cooking.

After the straw is dried, it is rolled into small bundles, then tied into large bundles and dragged to the stove door.

My grandmother and I didn't farm. We would pick up the straw that other families dropped in the fields after they had finished harvesting.

After picking it up, he would rub some of the millet for his own food, and leave a little bit of straw to use as starter.

The firewood we used was picked up from the roadside in our spare time, and some was small branches cut from the ridges of the fields and dried.

After the straw was burning, I quickly put in some twigs and the fire slowly burned.

Grandma went to the rice jar and took out three eggs. I had asked my grandma before why she put the eggs in the rice jar.

Grandma said that this is a method passed down from generation to generation, and it can be preserved for a longer time and is not so easy to spoil.

Because my grandma and I only raised seven or eight chickens, eggs were the best dish besides fish and eels.

Moreover, my grandmother was reluctant to eat fish and eels, so she sold most of them in order to feed me.

Besides, chickens don’t lay many eggs in winter, so my grandma kept these eggs just to cook them for me on my birthday.

I lit the fire and watched my grandma operate it.

Because I like fried eggs, especially the kind with a soft center, my grandmother put a little rapeseed oil in the iron pan, and for the first time ever, she took out a ceramic jar that contained lard and scooped up a handful with chopsticks.

I know how precious lard is. My grandmother herself never wanted to eat it.

I like to eat rice with soy sauce. I pour a little soy sauce on the hot rice and add a little lard. It is super delicious in this era.

Before the Chinese New Year, my grandma finally bought a small jar of pork fat and made this small jar.

In this day and age, most people cannot afford oil, and fat and pork fat are more expensive than lean meat.

Other families raise their own pigs and slaughter them at the end of the year. The pigs are fed with pig grass and rice bran and are raised for half a year.

When it is time to slaughter, the live pig weighs only about 100 kilograms, but the pork is green and tastes much better. It cannot be compared with pigs raised with modern feed.

There were no refrigerators or freezers in the countryside at that time. Except for some pork eaten during the New Year, the rest was eaten by cutting it from the pig piece by piece in a large earthenware pot.

They then marinate it with layers of pork and salt, and only take out a little to eat during festivals or busy farming seasons, and it never lasts until the Chinese New Year.

Grandma fried the eggs, scooped a ladle of water into the pot, and when the water boiled, she put in a handful of noodles and a few cabbage leaves.

The food was almost cooked, and grandma asked me to take out the unburned firewood and stick it in the ash pile at the stove door.

Grandma scooped up the noodles and placed them in two large bowls.

I saw that it was obvious that one bowl had more noodles, and three fried eggs were also placed in that bowl. I scooped a bucket of water into the pot and used the charcoal fire in the stove to warm the water to wash the pot and bowl.

Grandma held the bowl of noodles with more eggs, and I held the bowl with less noodles. We walked into the main room, one in front and one behind, and placed our hands on a square table that was a bit dark in color. There were a few bamboo chairs next to the table.

After she sat down, grandma pushed the bowl with eggs in front of me, and then pulled the bowl with less eggs in front of herself and said:

"Feng Er, happy birthday!"

"Thank you grandma!"

With tears in my eyes, I pushed the bowl in front of my grandma.

"Grandma, you eat this bowl. I can't finish so much." I reached out to take the smaller bowl from grandma, but grandma stopped me.

"Today is your birthday, and the eggs are made for you. Besides, grandma is old and can't eat that much. You are growing, so you should eat more."

After saying that, she pushed the bowl over again.

I knew my grandma wouldn't eat so much from the bowl, so I picked up an egg and prepared to put it in her bowl. She quickly lifted the bowl and put it aside.

"Grandma, you have to continue, otherwise I won't eat!" I was a little angry.

Seeing that I was angry, my grandma had to hand the bowl to me again. When I gave her the second egg, she said she would not take it anymore, so I had to give up.

I took a few more pieces of noodles with my chopsticks, and then my grandma took the noodles from me with her eyes red and about to cry.