The story of a cook

Chapter 203 Going home ([-])

My family is very poor, but my family is very warm.

My mother gave us six siblings strength and tenacity, so that we can all live an enviable life.

I remember when I was a child, I stayed at home every day.

At that time my house was in front of the mine.My house is an old house with three earthen houses, the middle is the outbuilding, the east house is where our family lives, and the west house is an idle house, where messy things are kept.The yard is quite large and long, and the gate of the yard is now the store of the mine store.The mine wanted to open a store in my house, so it moved my house to the west mountain where I live now.At that time, there was no compensation for relocation. The mine and the commune (the commune at that time) negotiated and built three houses for my family in Xishan, and my family moved there.

My childhood was spent in the old house.

I play at home alone every day.My father was sick, always lying on the kang, and had to take medicine non-stop.My mother and sisters work in the production team, and my father is with me, and my father doesn't play with me yet.

My house has a huge yard, backed by a mine.At that time, mines produced a lot of coal, and the walls of my house were built with hard coal (half coal, half stone). They were dark, like the black castles in the fantasy movies I watch now.There is a jujube tree in the front yard, and a jujube tree behind the house. You can eat jujube every autumn.In addition to the jujube tree, there are also apricot and peach trees in the yard, but they are not as big as the jujube tree.

There is a river in front of my house, which is formed by the water pumped from the mine. In summer, I will go there with bare feet to play in the water. While playing in the water, I will wait for my mother to come back from work. I can eat.I never played in the river in front of my door until I saw my mother stepping directly into the river wearing cloth shoes with leaky toes.

Sometimes I still hate the river.

To the east of my house is an equipment factory, which is owned by the Mining Bureau.Further to the east, after passing the equipment factory, is the Mining Workers' Families Hospital.

Our village is in the south, across the river is our village.

The children in the mine family courtyard play together all day, watching them play happily and joining them, always play with them.I still remember my childhood partner clearly, but I can't find it now.

Most of the time, I play by myself at home.

My fifth sister is five years older than me. When I was three, my fifth sister was eight years old, which is the age to go to school.When Fifth Sister was not in school, her job was to coax me at home and take me with her every day.When she went to school, no one would take care of me. I was only three years old at that time, and my father couldn't take care of me when he was sick. So the fifth sister came down from school and coaxed me at home for two years.

My mother said that I was a jerk when I was a child, and my fifth sister was coaxing me at home all day, and I always bullied her.I don't know what happened before I don't remember. After I remember, I remember that I did the most fucking thing once.It was Fifth Sister's birthday, and my mother bought Fifth Sister Ermifan in the mine cafeteria. At that time, Ermifan was only eaten during Chinese New Year in my house.I also wanted to eat Ermi Rice, so I robbed Fifth Sister, but Fifth Sister lifted up the rice bowl and I couldn't reach it.

Seeing the second rice spilled on the ground and the fifth sister crying very sadly, I stood there stupidly, watching the fifth sister cry, I also shed tears, knowing that I had done the worst thing I should do, after that I will never stop I haven't snatched anything from Fifth Sister, and at the same time, whenever I see Er Mi Fan, I feel uncomfortable, and my heart will involuntarily twitch and become sore.

The fifth sister didn't go to school until she was ten years old.In other words, I delayed Fifth Sister's studies for two years, so when Fifth Sister was admitted to school, I made the first choice in my life without hesitation, without complaint or regret.

When I can remember, Fifth Sister started to go to school.I remember that the first thing Fifth Sister did when she came back from school every day was to lie on the kang and do her homework. I watched beside Fifth Sister, hoping that Fifth Sister would finish her homework quickly so that she could play with me.When the fifth sister was doing homework, she sometimes taught me to count. From the beginning, I was very smart and could count to one hundred very quickly.

Fifth Sister sometimes taught me how to read, and I knew some simple characters before I went to elementary school.

When Fifth Sister went to school, I read at home with Fifth Sister's textbook, but I didn't know most of the characters on it, so I pretended to know them, and babbled, quite like that.When my father is in good shape, he will ask me if I know those words?I said I didn't know, and then my father would teach me how to read, and I also learned a lot of characters.So before I went to elementary school, I was illiterate and could recite a few Tang poems.

Many people had a great childhood.

My childhood memories are gray, and all I can think of are impressive and uncomfortable past events.

I remember when I played with the children in the family courtyard, those children were from industrial households with good conditions. I could only watch from the side when they were playing hoop pushing, because I didn’t have one.There was another time when they were playing with a piece of armor, that is, the one made of paper. I didn't have it either.My mother didn't know what a piece of armor was, so she asked me what it was?I said it was made of paper, the kind that can be placed on the ground to fan, whoever flips the opponent's piece of armor fan will win, and can put the opponent's piece of armor into his pocket.I said for a long time that my mother didn't understand, but my father did.My father looked at Fifth Sister's textbook, and Fifth Sister hurriedly pressed the textbook under her body, fearing that Father would use her textbook to stack my armor.My father looked at the ancient books he was reading again, but he was also reluctant.In the end, I couldn't use the cement paper (cement bag) at home to fold a few pieces of armor for me.I was very happy holding the piece of armor that my father folded, and said that I also had a piece of armor, so I fanned it on the floor of the house and had a great time playing.

At that time, paper was very expensive in my house.

Many people will not believe this.When I was in the first four years of primary school, my mother used the burned paper that the villagers brought when my father burned sacrifices to make my homework.That kind of burnt paper is khaki, uneven on the top, and has a hard-skinned son, so it is very difficult to write on it.When you encounter a stalk, you have to drop the stalk and write it again from the next line.

To be honest, my family didn’t even have the money to buy notebooks for my fifth sister and me to go to school.

Every Sunday, my fifth sister led me to the garbage dump of the mine hospital to pick up garbage, and pulled out the small glass bottles of penicillin and erythromycin from it. After a whole morning, I could almost pick up a basket by turning over the entire garbage dump. A small bottle, and then take it to the scrap collection point of the supply and marketing cooperative to sell it. It can be sold for [-] cents, and Fifth Sister and I will use this money to buy the book.

At that time, small regular scripts and matts cost seven cents each, rubbers cost two cents each, and pencils cost two cents each.

The family had no money, so my fifth sister and I struggled hard to support ourselves.

When I started to go to school at the age of seven, it was just in time for my family to move.

In the first autumn when I moved to my new home in Xishan, it was raining lightly and my father passed away.

The day my father died was Sunday.

In the first two days, my father became a little serious. He was lying on the kang unable to move, and his stomach was so distended that it was scary.His hair was all gray and his eyes were dull.At that time, when I was young, I didn't dare to look at my father, and I was a little scared.

In those two days, there were more people in the family. My aunt and uncle were all at my house, and my eldest sister came back. The eldest sister and second sister would secretly wipe their tears. Seeing them wipe their tears made me want to cry.

The elder brothers in the family came, and they didn't go home after they came, they took turns to stay by his father's side.

Finally, late that night, my father died.

Uncle pulled me to my father.I looked at my father, his pale face revealed bloodshot rosiness, and his eyes that had lost their light also had a little light.My father looked at me, and slowly stretched out his hand, trying to touch me, but the hand hung down halfway, and then breathed and panted rapidly.

I stared at my father blankly, watching the gray-haired father suffering there, and then my father spit out a mouthful of blood——
Mr. Yin Yang shouted: "The old man is gone—"

The eldest sister, the second sister, the third sister, the fourth sister, and the fifth sister cried heartbreakingly, and the crying that could tear people's hearts is still echoing in my ears——
To be honest, I am already in tears when I write here——
I don't know fear, and I don't know what. When I heard my sisters crying, I felt like my throat was blocked by a ball of cotton, which made me uncomfortable.Want to cry, but there is no tear, unable to speak out.

At that time, I wanted to shout, but there was no sound at all.

I watched as people carried my father off the ground and into the outhouse.

I saw my mother trembling, with tears streaming down her face, without making a sound——
I crawled up to my mother, and she took me into her arms—
My home, at that moment, was full of sadness.

After that, I was led by Mr. Yin Yang like a puppet to do what a filial son should do.

Show the way to my father, kowtow, kowtow to the relatives who come over, kowtow to all the people who come from the village.

Then there was the coffin for the father.

When they put my father in the coffin and began to nail the coffin, I burst into tears, tears streaming down my face.

I supported the coffin and wept bitterly.At that time, I just wanted to cry, and I knew in my heart that the father who had been lying on the kang all day was gone, gone forever, and now he is in this coffin, in this coffin——
No one said it was useless, just lying on the coffin and crying loudly, as if I could cry my father lying in the coffin alive.

Until later, I fell into a coma.

My mother hugged me, and my whole body was burning like coals.

I clearly remember that my third sister gave me an injection of "Antongding" every two hours.

My mother later said that she was terrified at the time. My father had just left, and she was afraid that something would happen to me.The doctor also came and said that I didn't need to go to the hospital, that is to say, my health was also bad.

Father's funeral is the next day.

I am awake and can stand up too.

Kneeling there, mourning and hanging filial piety.

Mr. Yin Yang dropped the mourning basin from the top of my head, and it fell to the ground and shattered.

The head flag was taken off my back and inserted directly into the carriage pulling my father's coffin.

The owner of the carriage waved his whip, and the carriage began to move forward.

I chased after frantically, stopped in front of the carriage and refused to let the carriage go, crying, yelling, yelling, people pulled me away, and I was fighting with them.

The carriage took a few steps forward, the horse stopped, and said nothing.

Seeing the carriage stopped, I rushed to the front of the carriage again, stood there, and looked at the dark coffin containing my father on the carriage. This time I didn't cry, I just looked at it that way.

Later, people said that I was very scary at that time, and no one dared to step forward to pull me.

I watched it for a long time, then knelt in front of the carriage and kowtowed three times to my father.Then he stood up and walked back, saying as he walked, "Dad, let's go, I will see you when the time comes."

The carriage left, I didn't look back, and fell to the ground in darkness.

It was raining lightly.

(End of this chapter)