09/eng_cont/i_0005.txt

Chapter 5 Yuequan Village.

Tian Manyin, who was concerned about her daughter, smiled and agreed. Zhu Aiqing dug out her husband's eyes fiercely, and then glared at Tian Sisi, her eyes filled with the content of "I will deal with you tonight." Tian Sisi was not afraid at all. Maybe Zhu Aiqing's anger would have dissipated early in the evening, but if it didn't work, she would stay with Mr. Tian until he went to bed later.

After Tian Manyin smoked a cigarette, he got up and went to his second uncle's house. His daughter's affairs had to be settled early to avoid her being unhappy. Mr. Tian doesn't like smoking cigarettes. He smokes a hookah, and the tobacco is grown at home. It takes a lot of effort to take a puff, and it makes a "gurgling" sound. Tian Sisi fills the pipe for the old man, and then fills the old man with clean water. He is very busy.

The old man finished smoking a pack of cigarettes and sent Tian Sisi out to play, "Go, go, it makes me dizzy, go out and play."

Mrs. Zhao had already washed her hands and brought out a large basin. Inside was half a basin of glutinous rice flour mixed with late rice noodles. Pure glutinous rice flour was too soft and the dumplings were not chewy enough. The glutinous rice dumplings mixed with late rice flour tasted chewy. The Tian family all loved to eat this kind of rice noodles with 70% glutinous rice and 30% late rice, whether it was rice cakes or dumplings.

Mrs. Zhao poured hot water into the basin. Seeing that the old man was obviously very useful but still pretending to be disgusted, she laughed and scolded: "People always do things, grandma, go play outside and leave your father alone. It's so pitiful that he has been lying in bed for so long. Go outside and get some fresh air."

Tian Sisi originally wanted to help Mrs. Zhao make the dumplings, but the old lady who loved her granddaughter kicked her out of the house with her hands covered with rice flour and asked her to take her brother out to play. Zhu Aiqing chased Tian Sisi out and said, "Ah, don't run to the river again."

"Oh, I got it." Tian Sisi took her two younger brothers and put on their rain boots and ran out quickly. She had long wanted to go out and see what Yuequan Village was like in the 1970s. Is it really as my mother said, with beautiful mountains and green waters and pleasant scenery.

The sun outside is already very high, and the snow on the eaves, on the road, and on the trees has melted quietly, turning into water and dripping down. The eaves are covered with transparent and bright ice prisms, of different lengths, some are as long as a foot, reflecting colorful lights in the sun. Mang, when Tian Sisi saw the long-lost ice cubes, she ran to the woodshed with joy, took off her gloves, broke off one from under the eaves, and put it into her mouth, biting and hissing, her lips were numb from the ice, but she couldn't help but want to bite.

Donghua and Qinghua had already chewed two sticks and kept biting them. They ate until white gas came out of their mouths. They were not afraid of the cold at all. Tian Sisi only took two bites and threw the ice cubes away. She was just recovering from a serious illness, so don't go to bed again. When she saw Donghua and Qinghua chewing one stick again, she hurriedly stopped them. Children have weak stomachs and cannot eat too much ice in the summer, let alone such a severe winter.

Tian Sisi looked at her house. It was a very ordinary farmhouse, with five two-story wooden buildings. There were yards at the front and back. They raised pigs, chickens, ducks and other livestock in the backyard. The front yard was larger than the back yard, with a large sunbathing flat. There were also two small vegetable plots next to it. The fields were full of green vegetables and red cabbage. Looking at it this way, her house was pretty good. At least it was still a building!

"Sister, are we going to play?" Qinghua asked when he saw his sister standing motionless.

"Go, where do you want to play?" Tian Sisi asked her two younger brothers for their opinions.

"Go play in the snow under the old camphor tree in Zhongjiawan." Tsinghua suggested excitedly. Today's sister was so nice that she was willing to take them to play.

Both younger brothers were willing to go snow-blasting, so Tian Sisi followed them. The Tian family lived in the far west of Yuequan Village, backed by Yuequan Mountain, with a separate house and courtyard, and were not connected to other families in the village. Zhongjiawan was at the east end of the village, just across the Weinnan River from the west of the village. Qinghua and Donghua happily led the way, and Tian Sisi trotted to keep up, splashing mud spots, some of which even splashed on his pants.

Tian Sisi frowned and grabbed Donghua and Qinghua. The two guys' pants were even more splashed. They refused to leave slowly. If they were late, the good territory would be occupied by others. Tian Sisi threatened them, "If your pants are stained, go home and see how dad beats you!"

Tian Manyin was just kind to his daughter. He always had a straight face with his two sons, so in the eyes of the Donghua brothers, their father was much scarier than their mother. They immediately slowed down their pace and carefully avoided places with deep mud.

After walking for a short distance, there is a farm, house to house, with different heights and layers. They are basically bungalows, few are two-story, and many have thatched roofs. Compared with my own house, it is really the difference between European-style villas and country cottages.

The second uncle Tian Sisi also lives here. The second uncle's house is on the roadside. Although it is a bungalow, the courtyard looks obviously more outstanding. The people living in the farm are basically Tian families, except for a few mixed surnames. In the old society, most of the Tian people were poor and worked as long-term labor for the Zhong family on the other side of the river. Therefore, the farms are basically filled with crumbling walls and courtyards. Although the new society has been around for more than 20 years, ordinary villagers simply don't even dare to think about building new houses.

A small stream as thin as a hemp rope flows from Yuequan Mountain in Yuequan Mountain, and converges into a five or six-meter-wide river at the farm, which is the Kuinan River. The Kuinan River was originally called Yuenan River, but I don’t know which dynasty, there were more than ten children in Yuequan Village getting into trouble in the river. The parents of those children would cry by the river on their children’s memorial day. Those who heard it were sad, and the name of Kuinan River came from this.

There is a stone bridge on the Ciannan River. This stone bridge is many years old. It is said that it was built by several landowners in Zhongjiawan during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It is still strong today. However, Tian Sisi knew that the bridge would be crossed when there was a flood in 1998. At that time, her mother felt regretful for a while.

After passing the stone bridge, there is a large area of ​​​​Zhongjiawan. Unlike the farmland, the terrain of Zhongjiawan is uneven. Zhongjiawan is flat land and connected together, like the northern plains. Most of the people living here are people with the surname Zhong. Of course, there are also some mixed surnames. Every household in the bay lives in densely packed, mostly two-story buildings. More than a dozen families are connected together to form a large circle, with a large courtyard in the middle.

The largest courtyard among them is the home of Zhong Yubai, the landlord of Zhongda. Zhong Yubai is not only the largest landlord in Yuequan Village, but also famous in Suicheng City. It stands to reason that a big landlord like him would have died long ago, but because Zhong Yubai is a good person, he used to be very kind to the long-term workers in the family, unlikeThe landowner next to him was so evil, and he also knew medicine and saved the lives of many people in the village. Therefore, although he was classified as a landlord, his family's land and property were only confiscated. When the rebels came down, the village only criticized Zhong Yubai symbolically, but he did not suffer much else.

Before liberation, the Zhong family had always been the masters of Yuequan Village. Most of the land in the village and everything on the land belonged to the Zhong family. Therefore, during the land reform, there were two landlords in Zhongjiawan, three families were rich peasants, and five or six families were middle peasants. Most of the others were poor and lower-middle peasants.

At this time, a girl wearing an old floral cotton-padded jacket walked over. She had two braids and two red flowers on her braids, which were exactly the same as those on Tian Sisi's head. Although the girl's face was red from the cold and many places were cracked, it still did not damage her beauty. She and Tian Sisi have two different beauties. Tian Sisi is quite bright and belongs to the mainstream beauty nowadays, while this girl has an "awl face" that is very popular in later generations, but now it is called "mean face", which is a very unpopular appearance, especially among the elderly.

The girl seemed to be going to the river to wash clothes. The hand holding the noodle bucket was swollen like bread, and the red flesh could be seen in the cracked opening. It was terrible. When the girl saw Tian Sisi's new ski shirt and the beautiful red rain boots on her feet, a trace of jealousy flashed in her eyes. Although she hid it well, she could not hide it from Tian Sisi, who had an adult soul.

The girl greeted Tian Sisi with a friendly smile, "Zhao Di, have you recovered from your illness? Why don't you come to play with me?"