1987 My Era

Chapter 5, Expert

After doing all this, Li Lan casually grabbed a handful of pine needles from the firewood pile to wipe off the oil on her palms, and then couldn't wait to pick up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

He lowered his head and chewed slowly. The more he chewed, the brighter his eyes became. He thought to himself, I can't believe it, this kid is as lazy as a piece of dog shit on weekdays, but his cooking skills are pretty good.

Then I took the second piece, the third piece...

Under his nose, I ate six pieces without realizing it.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Li Heng, who was frying Chinese cabbage, twitched his face and couldn't help but speak:
"No, there are only about twenty pieces of meat. Can you wait until later to eat?"

Li Lan seemed not to hear him and continued eating without even looking at him.

"Wow! Brother, are you going to fry some bacon today?" Just then, a clumsy voice came from the door, and the eldest sister Li Yan came over with a big belly.

He half turned around and asked, "Sister, have you eaten?"

Li Yan stared at the bacon with her eyes shining green. She shook her head vigorously and said, "Maoqia, Maoqia again."

There were two meat dishes and one vegetable for dinner, one smoked bamboo shoot and bacon, one Chinese cabbage, and a bowl of jarred chili peppers.

There is also delicious white rice.

This was already a very luxurious meal for the Li family in 1987.

Normally, the meal would only be so sumptuous during festivals or when guests came to the house.

However, the remaining bacon all went into the eldest sister's mouth. She ate it with oil dripping from her mouth and ate three large bowls of rice in one breath.

Li Heng and Li Lan watched all this silently without making any noise to interfere. They tacitly just picked up some bamboo shoots and cabbage to eat with the rice.

When there was only one piece of bacon left at the bottom of the bowl, Li Yan, who realized it late, scratched her head and giggled, and greeted him a little embarrassedly:

"I'm almost done eating. Brother and sister, you guys should eat too."

It's just a piece of meat, why bother eating a chicken?

how to eat?
Should I share it with my second sister?
Li Heng secretly complained in his heart, but there was no trace of blame on his face.

Li Lan glanced at her elder sister's pregnant belly, then glanced at Li Heng across the table, picked up two sour red peppers and put them in the bowl, then stood up and took the bowl to go outside under the eaves.

Li Yan was also afraid of her second sister's fierceness, and asked in a low voice with a pounding heart:
"Brother, is your second sister mad at me? She blames me for eating all the meat."

Li Heng gave her the last piece of meat in the bowl and consoled her with a smile: "No, don't think too much, big sister. We are sisters, how could I be angry with you?

My second sister and I had already eaten a lot when you came. You should have seen it when you walked in. "

Li Yan covered her head and recalled the scene when she entered the door before. It seemed that she really saw her second sister eating meat. She was no longer annoyed and lowered her head to put the last piece of meat in her mouth:
"Then I ate it. The meat is really delicious and fragrant."

Seeing her chewing the bacon with big mouthfuls, Li Heng felt extremely sad and gave all the minced meat in the bowl to her.

My eldest sister married an honest man. Her husband is still an apprentice, learning the craft from a carpenter in Huaihua next door. He can only barely make a living on weekdays and doesn't earn much.

Last year, my eldest sister's mother-in-law went up the mountain to dig herbs and was eaten by a wild boar. She became disabled and is still being treated with herbs. She is in debt.

This is also the reason why the eldest sister visits her parents' home so often, because Tian Run'e loves her and always cooks some delicious food every time she comes back to supplement her basic nutrition.

After dinner, the eldest sister, who was full from eating too much, took the initiative to take over the task of washing dishes and chopsticks. Li Heng refused and wanted to let her take a break, but she pushed him out of the kitchen anyway.

My eldest sister is like this, she is extremely stubborn and always wants to find something to make up for it after eating the meat, so that she can feel at ease.

Li Lan used a broom to clean the left corner of the room, spread a pig feed board on the ground, and started chopping the pig feed.

There are four pigs at home, two big and two small. The big one weighs nearly 300 pounds, and the small one weighs about 70 or 80 pounds.

There is also a yellow ox, which is used for spring ploughing.

Although the second sister is cruel, she is a hardworking person. As long as she is at home, she will take good care of the pigs, cows and other animals. Her hands and feet are more dexterous than Tian Run'e, and she looks like an old farmer.

It's strange to say, but all the pigs fed by her grow faster, better and more rapidly than those fed by other families. The piglets can often be slaughtered in half a year.

Therefore, he is nicknamed the pig-raising expert.

Even several families with very good financial conditions had their eyes on her and repeatedly went to Tian Run'e's house to persuade her to become their daughter-in-law.

But Li Lan looked down on those trivial things and refused them with just one sentence, "I want to be a city dweller."

Of course, people are constantly thinking about her, and her beauty is also a big plus. She and Tian Run'e were almost cut from the same mold when they were young, and they were both beautiful. Everyone in the surrounding area would praise her: This girl is pretty.

While the two sisters were working, Li Heng didn't rest either.

First, burn a pile of half-wet and half-dry firewood in the stove. Then use a board to block the stove door, put a wire mesh on top, put the fish and shrimp caught today on top, cover it with a few old newspapers, and finally press down the edges and corners of the newspapers with firewood.

That's it.

Fish and shrimp can be almost cooked overnight by smoking. You need to check them every one or two hours to prevent them from burning.

...

In the evening, cold wind blew in through the broken window gaps, making people's face hurt.

Grandma is a bitch!
The weather is so bad that it changes as soon as it wants. The awful weather is here again.

Picking out two intact old newspapers and digging out a dozen thumbtacks from the corner of the drawer, Li Heng started to work as a tailor while cursing.

The heartless Li Yan ran to the Chen family opposite to join in the fun and watch the show. At the same time, like everyone else at the intersection, she was worried about the bowl of noodles at 12 o'clock in the morning.

According to custom, at funerals like this, the host would provide free Shaozi noodles at 12 o'clock every night for the rural neighbors to enjoy.

There were not many entertainment activities in those days, and everyone was living a tight life with insufficient food and clothing. When such a good thing happened, naturally the whole family, young and old, would come together to enjoy it, without any hesitation. Those who could eat would eat three big bowls.

Even though the child was only a tiny child, he was not as polite as people in later generations, so one bowl was more than enough for him.

What's more, the Chen family is a well-known wealthy family in the village. In the afternoon, they not only slaughtered pigs and cattle, but also generously bought four goats. There were so many whistles that no one wanted to sleep and they were all looking forward to it.

Seeing the eldest sister in the crowd so happy, Li Lan twisted her face and wanted to call her back, but when she glanced at her round pregnant belly, she swallowed the words back several times.

Finally, Li Lan was so angry that she muttered, "Another spineless person," and went back to the house.

Six people live in three mud houses, and grandma has now been taken away by my eldest aunt.

When they were young, Li Jianguo and Tian Xiao'e lived in one room with Li Heng, and grandmother lived in another room with her two granddaughters.

As they grew older, Li Heng and Li Lan were forced to move to the narrow second floor. The brother and sister lived on the east and west sides of the room, separated by wooden boards against the wall, making a simple single room.

The pile between the two rooms was mainly filled with firewood and a creepy black coffin.

The coffin belongs to grandma.

Li Heng bent down and crawled into the makeshift house. He sat on the hard bed and felt very suffocated. He couldn't sleep. Accustomed to the comfortable middle-aged life, it was difficult for him to adapt to the old era where he was not well fed and clothed.

He felt that the task was arduous. He had to change his living conditions, earn money to treat his father's illness, regain the face his mother had lost in the Chen family, and let the whole family live a good life. All of this required money, a lot of money. He was so anxious that he didn't want to wait even a minute.

This poor and miserable scene is so shabby that it makes you feel ashamed just by looking at it for a second.

Time waits for no one, every second counts.

With this belief in mind, he began to try hard to search his memory for various novels and magazines he had read.

In his previous life, he was a civil servant and later worked in the education industry. He had plenty of time. Influenced by his father, his biggest hobby was reading and newspapers.

Of course, I also play badminton, basketball, and boxing from time to time.

In order to please Song Yu, he even learned to play the piano.

It can be said that he had a wide range of interests. He had read at least a thousand famous books and literary works from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, which filled his entire study.

However, based on the current social conditions and his living environment, he began to feel troubled again. After choosing and choosing, he didn't know where to start.

He doesn't even consider submitting articles to newspapers.

In his previous life, he had saved tens of millions of yuan. Now that he was reborn, the few yuan in royalties were nothing but a bunch of rubbish. Li Heng couldn't even muster up any energy.

If it’s not a famous piece, don’t accept it.

It is said that one should become famous as early as possible. Knowing what a prosperous and brilliant era the future would be, and the dire situation of his family needed to be changed urgently, he did not have so much time to waste.

After much thought, his mind finally settled on three novels.

They are "Wasted City", "Life is a Sea" and "To Live" respectively.

(End of this chapter)