Affection for Sidaogou during the Famine

Her stomach was cramping and making gurgling sounds like thunder. She had never suffered such pain before. It was also because she exercised a lot and her stomach and intestines had a strong digestive ability.

At two o'clock in the morning, Han Zhaozhao curled up in her quilt and listened intently. Her aunt and cousin were both fast asleep. She secretly covered her head with the quilt, smuggled out two steamed buns from the space, and ate them in small bites.

I touched my stomach, and well, it finally behaved itself and stopped rebelling now that it had food to eat. Although I wasn’t full, I didn’t feel hungry either.

Alas! She missed home after only one day! Grandpa's house was too inconvenient, with so many people and no private space. She didn't even dare to eat buns, fearing that the smell was too strong and would be discovered. She could only starve with the people at her grandpa's house.

She was really worried. Could she hold on for the next two and a half days?

When he got up in the morning, Little Stone said, "Mom, there are mice in our house. I seemed to hear them stealing food at night."

Han Zhaozhao was stunned for a moment. His little cousin slept like a dead pig last night. How could he hear the noise?

"You are dreaming! There is no food in the house. What will the mice eat when they enter the house?"

My aunt jokingly helped her little son put on his cotton shoes. The boy was wearing thick clothes and couldn't bend down to pick up his shoes.

Having said that, my aunt knows that when mice are extremely hungry, they will even gnaw on furniture, clothes and shoes.

After folding the quilt, she asked the children to help her search through the drawers and cabinets for mice.

Hey, you’re right, my cousin and his friends really did find a rat hole, right in the corner behind the closet.

My aunt dug for a long time but didn't catch any big rats. However, she caught a nest of pink little mice that looked like meatballs. She also dug out five or six pounds of grains, including corn kernels, peanuts, sorghum, and soybeans.

Little Stone jumped up and down excitedly, "I'm rich! I'm rich! Hehe, we have food!"

As soon as he finished shouting, his aunt covered his mouth and slapped him on the butt.

"What are you yelling about? Are you afraid no one will hear you? If the villagers catch you, I'll beat you to death!"

Little Stone nodded his head rapidly, "Mmm, oh I get it, I dare not not shout, hurry up and let go...oh, I'm going to suffocate to death!"

Only then did my aunt let go of her hand and carefully put the grain into the winnowing basket. She winnowed and picked it up, carefully cleaned it up, poured the grain into a small clay jar and hid it.

As for where it was hidden, Han Zhaozhao didn’t know!

Don’t underestimate the rural old ladies’ ability to hide things. Every nook and cranny in the house is under their control!

Little Shitou was enthusiastically playing with the little mouse which had not yet opened its eyes, but Han Zhaozhao was staring straight at the mouse hole. An idea suddenly occurred to her!

They went to the canteen chatting and laughing, and harvested half a basket of grain early in the morning. The whole family was very happy and kept praising Han Zhaozhao as a lucky star.

Han Zhaozhao agreed in her heart. If she hadn't eaten secretly in the middle of the night and Xiao Shitou hadn't heard the noise in his dream, why would her aunt think of looking for the mouse?

If you don't look for mice, you won't find the food stored in the mouse hole. It's right to say that it was her fault!

When I got breakfast, it was exactly the same as yesterday, sweet potato flour and wild vegetable porridge.

However, because the adults still had to work during the day, they were given an extra portion of dark steamed bread. Two strong laborers, half-grown children, women, and the elderly were all treated the same, and all received one, while children under ten years old who did not work only received half.

Han Zhaozhao was more thoughtful this time. He shared the porridge with his two cousins ​​and Xiao Shitou. He also broke half a steamed bread into two halves and divided them equally between his two cousins.

My aunt was anxious and tried to stop me. "Share it with them, what will you eat? Zhaozhao, don't worry about your cousins. They won't starve. You can eat by yourself."

Han Zhaozhao: She is not hungry, but she is not full either! If you give her food, she must be able to eat it! If she swallows it, processes it again and spits it out, isn't that a waste of food?

Grandpa noticed that his granddaughter couldn't eat!

No wonder, the living conditions at my granddaughter’s home are much better than in the countryside, and she has definitely never eaten such food.

The child is young and didn't cry or make a fuss, which means he is very sensible. Alas, it is really hard for the child to go to his grandfather's house this time.

"Mom, don't worry about the children's affairs, just let them be!"

The uncle also saw that the child couldn't eat the rough big pot meal. He secretly decided to go home and make a bowl of egg water for his niece. Yesterday, he touched the buttocks of the reed chicken, and there would be eggs in the morning.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck!" As soon as you enter the yard, the house's chickens will hold their heads high, chests puffed out, and march with proud steps to welcome their owners home.

As if to show off: "Master, master, I laid eggs again!"

My uncle and Xiao Shitou ran to the chicken coop at the same time, but the adult had long legs and big steps, and he was the first to take out a warm red-skinned egg from the grass nest.

"Give it to me, give it to me, Dad, let me get the eggs." Little Stone followed his father and kept yelling.

"Why should I give it to you? Wouldn't it be a waste if it fell? Get out of the way!

"Mother, go and boil some water and make Zhao Zhao a bowl of egg water. The child didn't have anything for breakfast, so he can't be hungry."

"Hey, I'll go boil some water now. We have sugar at home, so I'll put two spoonfuls of it in later. Zhaozhao will definitely like it." My aunt took the eggs, agreed, and went to the kitchen to boil water.

The cousins ​​went back to the house, picked up their schoolbags, said goodbye to Han Zhaozhao's family, and went out to school.

They didn't go home at noon and only had dinner after school in the afternoon. The middle school was better, as they paid for food and firewood, and the school provided a lunch at noon.

The situation is not so good in primary schools. Without such conditions, students go hungry and have to wait until school in the afternoon to go back to the village to eat in the canteen.

Han Zhaozhao sighed. No wonder all his cousins ​​were as thin as chickens. They were at the age of growing up and didn’t eat enough every day. How could they not be thin?

The egg water tasted very good, and my aunt added two spoonfuls of sugar. My grandfather wanted to pour a few drops of sesame oil, but was stopped by Han Zhaozhao.

She really didn't need this bite of food, so she left it to her cousins! Liquids were not easy to mail, and it was not easy for her to carry them all the way from Beijing!

If she ate one more bite, her grandpa's family would eat one less bite! She didn't eat the egg water alone. Her uncle went to the field to tidy up the land, her aunt went to the brigade to pick seeds and earn work points, and Little Stone was watching and drooling beside her.

She drank one third of it and left the rest for Grandpa and Little Stone.

Grandpa only drank two small sips just for the sake of courtesy, and the remaining half bowl went into Xiao Shitou's stomach.

"Did mom add sugar? It's so sweet and fragrant! It's so delicious! The reed chicken is so capable. I'll go out and find something delicious for it later."

It was winter and the ground in Northeast China was frozen hard. Han Zhaozhao couldn't think of where Xiao Shitou could find delicious food to feed the hens.

Han Zhaozhao coaxed her grandfather, who was going to stay at home with her, to go to the brigade office to peel peanuts, and instigated Xiao Shitou to go to the small river outside the village.

There was already a group of children sliding around on the ice, some were playing on the snow sled, some were playing with ice balls. Each child was wrapped up tightly, had a runny nose, and was having a lot of fun.

The ice games in Northeast China are not much different from those in Beijing. The snow sleds are very simple, without iron plates, and the children do not have ice skates with iron bars on the soles, so the main focus is on primitive sprint wild skating.