The happiness of rebirth is knocking on the door

Chapter 3

"Mom, let me smoke cigarettes too."

Zhang Meiying was bending over to check the growth of the tobacco leaves at the bottom of each tree. When she heard her daughter's words, she turned around and said with a smile, "You child, how do you know which tobacco leaves are ripe and which are not. When you grow up I’ll help mom brush the tobacco leaves after that, and now I’ll just carry the tobacco leaves my mother brushes to the car.”

Li Xiaohong knew this was the case, she gathered up the small piles of tobacco leaves that her mother brushed, and walked forward along the tobacco tree.She was not as tall as the tobacco tree, and she could only see tall tobacco leaves on both sides of her head when she stood inside. Some sweet potatoes were interplanted under the tobacco leaves. Because there was not enough sunlight, they did not grow well.

But even so, it also brought a lot of obstacles to Li Xiaohong's progress.The vines of sweet potatoes are intertwined, and Li Xiaohong's sight is blocked by the tobacco leaves in his arms. If he is not careful, he will easily trip over, so he can only walk forward cautiously.

In July, there is fire, and no wind can get in. Standing in the row of tobacco trees is like being in a steamer.It didn't take long for Li Xiaohong to sweat all over her body, and the sweat trickled down her face. She felt itchy. She blinked her eyes vigorously to prevent the sweat from flowing into her eyes.

The man is small with short arms and weak strength. It feels like he hasn't held many tobacco leaves yet, and his arms are already full.She clasped her hands together so that the tobacco leaves would not fall.If the tobacco leaves fall on the ground, they will become messy and not as neat as they were originally placed. If you arrange them one by one, you will not be able to keep up with the speed of your mother brushing the tobacco leaves.Li Xiaohong wanted to transport the tobacco leaves home earlier, it was so hot here that it was almost suffocating.After walking for a while, she tilted her head to one side and wrapped a towel around her neck.Wiped the sweat on it and continued to move forward.

After walking to the field, he let out a sigh of relief after putting the tobacco leaves on the side of the rack cart.

The leaves on the side of the road outside only moved slightly, but they kept coming out from inside. Even if there was only a little wind, I felt that it was really cool outside, and I was shivering because of the sweat all over my body was blown by the wind.He wiped the sweat off his neck with a towel, and seeing his sister having fun outside alone, he dragged her to the shade of a tree by the side of the road, and walked into the cigarette shop by himself.

Walking to Zhang Meiying's place, Zhang Meiying asked her, "Where's your sister, didn't she run far?"

"No, she's very good. We gave her a sandbag when we came, and she was playing with it."

"Tired?"

Li Xiaohong thought about what would be a normal reaction for a six-year-old child, and then said, "Well, I'm not very tired, it's just that the tobacco leaves keep touching my face, and now I feel itchy like prickly heat on my face."

"let me see."

Because of smoking, Zhang Meiying's hands were stained with a layer of black smoke oil, and she turned her daughter's face with the back of her hand to check.

"It's a little red, the baby's skin is too tender, unlike the mother's skin which is like bark, so I'm not afraid anymore. Xiaohong, go and rest for a while. You can't hold much at a time anyway, you can't finish it Mom will hug her later." Li Xiaohong wanted to help, but she was naturally unwilling.

"Popsicles! Cold and delicious popsicles!" They were arguing, and someone was selling them in the distance.

Seeing the child's red face running around, Zhang Meiying called out, "How much is a popsicle?"

"Ten cents a piece, delicious food is not expensive." The popsicle seller came over pushing a bicycle.

It only cost ten cents a piece, and Zhang Meiying was not willing to buy three, but planned to give Li Xiaohong one for herself, and she and Li Xiaolu shared one.

"Give us two."

"Okay!"

The popsicle seller was a young man in his twenties, with a friendly smile on his dark face, he opened the box on the back seat of the bicycle, inside was a layer of white quilt, and took out two popsicles from the quilt Then hastily covered it again.

"Xiaohong, eat it." Li Xiaohong knew that the popsicles at that time were actually made of ice cubes with some saccharine added, but she couldn't resist the cold temptation.

After eating, I really felt much cooler.

It took almost three hours for a cigarette field to be cleaned up. Tired of playing, Li Xiaolu lay down on the ground and fell asleep. There were traces of saliva at the corner of his mouth, and dirt was all over his body.

In fact, compared to other farm work, tidying up tobacco leaves is really not tiring, except for hot spots, dirty spots, and busy spots.The most tiring thing is grinding sweet potatoes. Most women can't do it, and I don't know how my mother supports it.

We must find a way to stop my mother from working so hard!
When I got home, I put the tobacco leaves in the shade of the trees. Fearing that it would be too hot outside to wilt the leaves and affect the effect of the flue-cured tobacco leaves, I built several mats on top of the tobacco leaves.

Afterwards, Li Xiaohong looked at her hands, there was already a thick layer of smoke oil on her hands, sticking black to her hands.My face also felt very itchy, needless to say, there was smoke oil on it.

She went to wash her hands first, Zhang Meiying picked a few pumpkin leaves from the nearby field and handed them to her: "Wash with this first, otherwise the oil won't wash off."

Li Xiaohong took it, rubbed it in his hands, rubbed his hands back and forth, and washed them off in the water.

The water turned black all of a sudden.Then I scooped up some water, washed it again with washing powder, and washed my face twice.Even so, there was still some yellow-green color on the hands after washing, which was the sap from the tobacco leaves seeping into the skin.Fortunately, after washing my face, the itchy feeling was much lighter, and I put on a layer of prickly heat powder, like a layer of flour, and finally it was more refreshing.

We must find a way to change as soon as possible, otherwise how long will such days last.

It's six o'clock in the afternoon, and it's time to make dinner.

"Let's eat lightly in the evening. We have to finish loading the tobacco leaves tonight, so we can quickly install the kang tomorrow morning when the weather is cool." Zhang Meiying poked open the stove, put water on it, stirred some batter, and let Li Xiaohong watch some.

Li Xiaohong said: "Mom, I don't cook, I want to serve tobacco leaves with you."

"Can you succeed?"

"I'm good at learning. How about it, Mom?" Li Xiaohong twisted Zhang Meiying's arm, feeling chills in her heart because of her image.In her previous life, she was always clumsy and tongue-tied, and she never acted like a baby.To live another life, in order to help my mother, I don't care so much.

Zhang Meiying couldn't agree with her, so she said, "Okay, okay, you go and get a bamboo pole and a ball of wrapped thread, first let's see how I do it."

Pretending to watch it for a while, Li Xiaohong also started to operate beside him. They are all familiar tasks. They have not done it for many years, but they quickly found the feeling.

First of all, generally take a few pieces of tobacco leaves as a cluster, don't take too much at a time, and don't take too little.If the tobacco leaves are big, take two pieces of tobacco leaves; if the tobacco leaves are small, take three or four pieces, follow the thread to the left of the bamboo pole, then wrap the thread around like this, and pin the other cluster on the right side of the bamboo pole, one left and one right. ,process alternately.

But Li Xiaohong still started to pretend that she couldn't do it well, and after being corrected by Zhang Meiying, things went smoothly.In another shady place, Aunt Wang, who lived in a kang house with her family, was also smoking tobacco leaves and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, look at how hardworking you Xiaohong are. When you talk about work, other children can't get in front of you. I can replace you at such a young age, and you will be blessed when you grow up."

"Hey, kid, it's good and bad for a while, just think she's playing, don't make trouble for me." Zhang Meiying said modestly, but couldn't stop smiling on her face.

Dinner is steamed buns left over from breakfast served with porridge, and the vegetables are fried with shredded pumpkin.

The local pumpkins are very rotten when fried, there is no condiment, and they are not as sweet as southern pumpkins. Li Xiaohong thinks it is as bad as it can be, and it is not as good as the seasoned radish.

This is how mother's craftsmanship is, and the meals are relatively rough.

I knew I asked my mother to cook by myself.The steamed bun was not covered properly, and it was already dry. Li Xiaohong took one, broke it up and soaked it in porridge, and ate it after soaking until soft. The dish was salty, so he ate a few mouthfuls of it as a pickle.

In this way, there are still people who are envious.

"You eat steamed buns."

"I can't help it. If I hadn't been busy smoking today, I wouldn't have steamed the steamed buns yesterday. As the saying goes, the steamed buns are cheap, and the steamed buns are cheap. I ate the pot helmet (sesame cakes) and pawned the land. Although we divided the land and guaranteed production It’s home, but you can’t eat like this, can you?”

"Yes, yes. But your faces are so white, you have to polish them many times."

"Well, it's about the same as the [-] noodles. There are children at home with thin throats, and they can't eat the noodles if they are coarsely ground. I don't want to bother eating them separately, so I eat them together."

Li Xiaohong knows that Ba Zero Noodles means that after the wheat is ground, 20.00% becomes bran, and only the remaining 80.00% is eaten.Compared with other families at this time who only eat after a little grinding, their family is more luxurious.

"It's better for you, look at us, now we can only eat black noodles."

"My family has a small population, and after the contract responsibility system, the food produced after paying the public grain is my own, so I dare to eat like this."

"That's how I feel motivated, otherwise how can I be so comfortable when I eat in the big cafeteria like before."

"Yeah, it turned out that the so-and-so in the first team almost starved to death. At that time, his legs were swollen and shiny, and he couldn't get up when he pressed a hole. Everyone fainted from hunger. Fortunately, he knew someone from the cafeteria and caught him. I boiled the noodles into noodle soup, and I was saved after drinking it.”

"Yes, yes. These children are in good times." After dinner, everyone chatted and served tobacco leaves.

A bamboo pole full of tobacco leaves weighs more than ten kilograms. Li Xiaohong is weak and can't lift it. If a bamboo pole is full, she has to ask her mother to help to lift it to the side.After ten o'clock, all the tobacco leaves were finally loaded, and they were arranged one by one in an extremely neat manner.

Li Xiaohong stretched her sore waist, and felt a strange sense of satisfaction. Is this the sense of accomplishment after something has been accomplished?
"It's hot, take a bath with water after smoking the tobacco leaves, and then sleep comfortably. My mother dried a large basin of water in a large wooden basin during the day."

"Ok."

After scooping out some water with a small basin, Li Xiaohong first washed her whole body with soap and rinsed it off, so that the dryness and heat could be removed.

"Mom, it's too hot, I want to sleep on the roof of the bungalow."

"No, you're too young, it's not safe up there."

"I will pay attention to it myself. How can I sleep in such a hot room?"

"Sleep as you want, so you're all here, don't you?"

The mother and daughter talked for a long time, but Li Xiaohong didn't turn her mother away, so she had to go back to sleep in her room.

It was so hot that she tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. It turned out that she grew up like this.But it is difficult to change from extravagance to simplicity. After more than ten years of baptism of air conditioning, she can no longer bear such a hot weather.

It felt like sweating was coming out all the time, as if I had taken another bath all over my body.After tossing and turning for a long time, she fell asleep in a daze. She seemed to wake up and felt that her face was covered with sweat. She took the sheet next to her and wiped the sweat, and fell asleep again in a mess.

When I woke up the next day, the tobacco leaves in her kang house were almost packed, and there were only a few scattered tobacco leaves left in the yard yesterday.

Because Li Xiaohong's family has no male laborers, and the work of watching the kang is done by men in turn, her family spent money to hire someone to repair the kang house, and gathered several families to live in her kang house, which is considered excessive. Otherwise, it will be difficult to find someone to partner with.

Li Xiaohong thought, it wasn't that her mother always wanted to adopt a son. No matter how capable women are in the countryside, they still can't match the strength of men, and many jobs in my hometown need to be partnered with others.But with himself, that white-eyed wolf shouldn't even think about entering his house.

The few men who were putting on the kang outside were simply shirtless, wearing only a pair of shorts, and each of them had a wet towel around their necks, but they all just wiped the sweat on their faces during the kang, letting it Without obstructing the eyes, the sweat kept dripping down from their tanned bodies but they didn't bother to wipe them off. Most of the trousers on several people's bodies were wet.

When the people on the kang saw her, they all smiled and said hello: "Xiaohong, wake up!"

"Yeah, when did you start to install the kang, I didn't hear it when I was in a deep sleep."

"We started before five o'clock. You, a child, just need to sleep more to grow taller." Aunt Wang said with a smile.

Li Xiaohong smiled and said nothing.After washing her face, she began to brush her teeth again. There was not much toothpaste left, and she threw it into a pile of garbage after using it.

"Don't throw it away, Hong. The toothpaste skin is still useful."

Only then did Li Xiaohong remember that toothpaste skins could be exchanged with shopkeepers at that time, so she picked up the toothpaste skins and put them on the window sill.

"I've been cooking rice soup for a long time. Let's see how it is. When the rice is ready, put the pot on the fire and put the pig food pot on it." Li Xiaohong agreed and went to work.

"Look at your Xiaohong, you've really grown into a big kid, not only tidying up, but also helping you with the work, so you don't have to worry about it at all." Aunt Wang said enviously.

"The children of the poor are already in charge of the family. I'm busy with the house alone, and I can't even take care of her sisters."

"That's because your family Xiaohong is sensible. Many children in our village are not as capable as Xiaohong."

Mother smiled all over her face. No matter what, it is always a happy thing for someone to praise their children.

Several people quickly packed the remaining tobacco leaves into the kang.One person yelled: "My God, it's going to be hot to death!"

Li Xiaohong saw that it was a cousin of the fifth generation who jumped out of the kang room.The clothes he was wearing were sticking to his body wetly, as if he had just been washed in water.

"Damn, this job is endless, when will you be a boss these days?"

Everyone laughed at him: "Isn't that what we farmers are like, otherwise you would also be a worker, and the wind won't blow and the rain won't keep you from getting drenched."

"You old people, don't be dissatisfied. Life is much better now. At that time, when you went to the big cafeteria, you would not get your work points. You left early and returned late every day, and you couldn't eat enough. It's not like now. , as long as you are willing to work hard, how much money you earn is your own."

The cousin didn't answer, just took off his shirt, bare his upper body, put his hands on his knees and took a breath, then scooped some water from Li Xiaohong's big tank and drank it all in one go.

Said to Li Xiaohong: "Sister, you have to study hard, don't be so exhausted every day like brother. Go to university and try to get out of here."

"Okay!" Li Xiaohong thought, not only will I go to college in the future, but I also need to change this living situation as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)