Four Foods in the Mountains

In the back alley of the alley in the Dongcheng District of the town, Wang Laicai wore a cloth towel on his face and carried things in his hand, avoiding the crowd all the way to the gate of his courtyard.

After two knocks on the door, the door was cracked open from the inside. Wang Laicai got in and locked the courtyard door from the inside.

His daughter-in-law Zhang took a look at the things in his hand, and said, "Why did you buy so much rice? The noodles are not white noodles."

"That's all?" Wang Laicai said, "Now a bucket of rice costs more than 200 Wen outside! White noodles are even more expensive, so let's just eat some miscellaneous noodles."

"The price has increased again?" Zhang's eyes widened, "This group of unscrupulous people, are you trying to starve us to death at such an expensive price at this time?" Then he sighed and said: "But no matter how expensive it is, buy more. There is only the bottom left in the rice jar, and this small bag of rice is only enough for our family to eat for a few days."

"Be patient for now. I'll see if the government can come forward to make the dealer sell it cheaper." Wang Laicai spat on the ground, "It's all because of the plague."

A few days ago, a patient who was treated by the clinic in the town suddenly lost his breath. The family members ran to the gate of the clinic and made a fuss, saying that the doctor was incompetent.

When patients in the town died one after another, everyone panicked, and the news from Fucheng could not be suppressed. When they heard that it was a plague, the entrance of the medical center was crowded, and the price of rice and oil rose terribly.In the past two days, every house has closed its doors and windows, not only for fear of being infected with the plague, but also for fear of thieves at home in case of chaos.

When it was dark, Mrs. Zhang brought the food to the table.

Four bowls of white rice porridge, a basket of mixed noodles, and two pickles.

"It's time to eat." Mrs. Zhang shouted.

The two children in the family rushed into the room when they heard the sound, and threw their hands on the table without washing their hands.

"Playing like a mud monkey, and at night, you have to spend firewood to boil water to scrub, so the firewood is free? Can you two save me some snacks?"

The two children didn't care about listening to their mother's nagging, they first stretched their necks to look at the dishes on the table, and then pouted after seeing clearly.

"Why pickles again, mother, I want to eat meat! I want to eat meat!"

"I don't want to eat steamed buns with mixed noodles, but white steamed buns."

The two children were yelling at the top of their voices, and Zhang was already upset, but when she heard the crying, she became even more angry, and grabbed each of the children and gave them a slap on the buttocks.

"What time is it? Where can I buy white noodles for you? Where can I get the money! If you have food, it's good. You can pick it. If you cry, I'll throw it out for you and stay with those who are infected with the plague. "

Knowing that the plague outside is scary and people will die if they get infected, the two children didn't dare to fight anymore after hearing what Aunt said, and just pouted and kept wiping away tears.

Wang Laicai walked to the door of the kitchen and heard the commotion inside. He frowned and said, "What are you talking about with the child?"

Mrs. Zhang said: "If there is no meat in the house, it must be like this. I have no rice to eat, and I still want to eat meat."

Wang Laicai stopped talking, sat down at the dining table, picked up his chopsticks, drank a mouthful of porridge and took a bite of the Zamian steamed bun.He is in charge of the embroidery workshop in the town, and he earns a lot of money every month. His family life has always been good, and he is used to eating white flour buns.

The two children were even more unaccustomed to eating. The youngest son still had tears in his eyes, holding his breath and said: "Aunt Zhou's house next door roasted chicken today, and Daqing threw chicken bones in my yard this afternoon to show off to me. We and Aunt Zhou asked Aunt Zhou to lie to us and say no."

"Really? Why didn't I smell it?" Mrs. Zhang asked in surprise.

Families live next to each other in this alley, and you can tell when you smell what you eat at noon or night. If the chicken was really roasted, the smell would have wafted from the entrance of the alley to the end of the alley.

"Okay," Mrs. Zhang would come to her senses after thinking about it, "it must have been simmering in the stove by blocking the doors and windows. When every family was in trouble, her family would hide and eat alone. Isn't it just a chicken? You know it's only for your own family. Children, how much can the dolls eat, even a few pieces of chicken, the neighbors for so many years are really useless!"

The two children ate steamed porridge, thinking about the chicken bones in the afternoon, they were even more greedy, but this time they didn't dare to cry loudly, only dared to sob and choke softly and said they wanted to eat chicken.

Wang Laicai loves his two sons, and he can't bear to see them so greedy.In fact, the family still has some wealth. Even if the price of rice noodles, oil and meat has risen now, it is not unaffordable.

But because the embroidery workshop was closed due to the plague, he couldn't get the monthly payment, and the price of goods had skyrocketed in the past two days, and the money was being spent outside like water, which was really heartbreaking.

Mrs. Zhang over there is still talking about the neighbor next door: "Isn't it just that I have a good brother who raises chickens and ducks in the countryside, and comes to the town to give her a few from time to time. If there is anything to show off, I will tell you next time in Daqing." If you burn meat at home, you come and tell me, do you hear me?"

Wang Laicai was holding a bowl and drinking porridge, when he heard his wife's words, he frowned, the countryside?

After patting his legs, Wang Laicai said, "That's right, the countryside, why didn't we think of that!"

"Didn't expect anything?" Zhang asked suspiciously.

"You two elder brothers in the countryside!"

Mrs. Zhang was puzzled: "What do you think they are doing?"

Wang Laicai also ignored the porridge, and said, "What else can I do? There was a plague in the town, and the patients were all crowded in the medical clinic, but there might not be any in the countryside. Besides, most of the villages raised pigs and chickens. It’s time to harvest wheat and it’s a bumper harvest, and every family is not short of food. If we stay in the town and worry about not getting enough to eat, why don’t we go to the countryside and join your brother.”

Mrs. Zhang raised her eyebrows when she heard this, but said worriedly: "But... But we haven't been in touch with them for many years, and they annoyed us even more about the incident a few years ago, so they may not be willing to let us stay."

Zhang's family was originally abandoned when she was young, and was seen by the Zhang family's aunt who went to the mountains to pick wild vegetables, and pitifully took her home to raise.

The two sons of the Zhang family took home a baby girl, and the family raised them with care.After she grew up, Mrs. Zhang was beautiful. When she went to the town to cut cloth with Zhang's aunt, she met Wang Laicai. After meeting several times, she got married.

It was the first time for a daughter in the village to marry into the town. The villagers used to envy Zhang's good life, and said that the Zhang family was very lucky. They picked up a daughter and came back to raise a son-in-law from the town. People are no better than people with muddy legs in the country, and I will definitely be able to help you in the future.

Only the Zhang family knew that Wang Laicai's parents disliked their daughter-in-law as a countryman, they prepared the bride price perfunctorily, and asked for a lot of dowry directly. For this reason, Zhang's two sister-in-laws often complained in front of their in-laws.

When Mrs. Zhang first married and went to the Wang family, the two brothers of the Zhang family went to the town to sell mountain goods several times with their belongings.But Wang Laicai's parents didn't want to see their daughter-in-law's natal family, not to mention entertaining them, but kept their faces black again and again. Zhang's family didn't go much after they felt the smell.

After not going there for a while, Mrs. Zhang went back to her natal family. What she said was that she thought the food in the town was expensive and wanted to get some food from her natal family.

The son and daughter-in-law are naturally not happy, how can a married girl go back to her mother's house to get food for her husband's family, not to mention that the conditions of her husband's family are much better than those of the country people who plan food in the fields, but Aunt Zhang is afraid that Mrs. Zhang will go back empty-handed. Husband's family was enraged, and every time they packed rice noodles for Mrs. Zhang to take back.

When Mrs. Zhang gave birth to her youngest son, her mother-in-law had passed away, and she couldn't find anyone to take care of her confinement child, so she put her idea on her natal sister-in-law, and wanted to send the eldest son back to the village to be taken care of by Zhang's aunt.

The aunt of the Zhang family loves the girl dearly, but the elder brother and sister-in-law have been dissatisfied with the younger sister and brother-in-law for a long time, and they refused to agree to life and death, and the relationship between the two families was completely deadlocked.

When Zhang's aunt was alive, she still had some contact during the New Year and holidays. After Zhang's aunt passed away, seeing the little sister came back to ask for food, the two brothers were unwilling to open the door, and almost lost contact.

At this time, Wang Laicai suddenly said that he was going to join his elder brother. Mrs. Zhang thought for a while and shook her head and said: "Forget it, why bother to keep in touch after you have turned your face? When the time comes, you will be locked out of the door, and you will feel ashamed a few years ago." Isn't it enough?"

Wang Laicai persuaded: "But there will be an epidemic, and we are all one family. How can your elder brother see death? They are all brothers and sisters. Aunt Zhou next door can send livestock to the town, why can't your elder brother?" At this juncture, help out a little sister and nephew?"

Seeing that Mrs. Zhang was still hesitating, Wang Laicai said "Ouch" and said, "The family is not rich at all, and I don't know how long this plague will last. It's always been like this. You can only go out but not go in. If you don't die of illness, you will starve to death first. You don't want to think about me and you." , think about your son too, he has lost weight from hunger in just two days."

The two children heard that there are chickens, ducks and fish in the countryside, their eyes widened and they looked greedy.

Mrs. Zhang looked at her sons, and thought of the dwindling money at home, hesitated for a long while, but nodded.

"Okay, let's go to the countryside. Anyway, my brothers and I grew up together. We can't really shut us out and watch us starve to death."

"okay."

In the middle of the night, the town was still brightly lit, and the medical center could not accommodate so many patients. There was no other way but to set up a shed on the street, and gather the people infected with the plague in one place for treatment.

Every household did not turn off the lights, and everyone in the town said that the plague was caused by evil spirits, so they had to light lights at home all the time to drive away the evil spirits and gain the protection of the gods.

In the courtyard of the Wang family, Wang Laicai woke up his two sons who were soundly sleeping, and Mrs. Zhang packed up their clothes and locked the courtyard door lightly.

"Why do you have to go in such a hurry, can't you wait until dawn? It's creepy to drive the mountain road in the dark."

"Hush," Wang Laicai said softly, "sooner rather than later, let's go in the dark now, and when it's dawn in Yunxi Village, your brother and the others will wake up too."

The two children were woken up from their sleep, they were still in a daze, and they were walking unsteadily.

Mrs. Zhang patted the faces of her sons: "Don't be confused, the earlier you go to the countryside, the earlier you can eat meat. It's the first time you go to your uncle's house, and they have to kill a chicken for you two to eat anyway."

Hearing that they can eat chicken, the two children instantly became energetic.

"Then, let's go faster and go to the countryside to eat meat."

"There are chickens, ducks and pigs in the countryside. When we come home to see Daqing, how can we make fun of us for showing off?"

The family laughed and hurried towards the outside of the city.