Meng Xiaozhi Sugar Core

About ten meters upstream from the pier along the stream, there is a gravel beach.

"Be careful, your sandals don't grip the ground well and the stones are slippery, so don't fall." My mother reminded me.

"Yeah." I nodded obediently and moved forward carefully.

"Come on, get down." My mother motioned me to squat down, "Turn over these rocks on the beach, there might be crabs underneath~"

"Look!" Before he finished speaking, a crab hiding under a rock was frightened and started running quickly to the side.

The mother moved quickly, placing one hand precisely on its back. Its body was pinned firmly to the ground. Its two pincers stretched out weakly, but it was unable to clamp the mother's hand.

"Then pinch its back with your index finger and its abdomen with your thumb, and you can catch it!" My mother showed off the crab to me.

"Oh!" I stared at the new and strange little animals with wide eyes, "I want to come too!"

Catching crabs may seem like an ordinary trick, but it is not easy to do. Crabs move very quickly. At first, I turned over a few, but they all slipped away. The surface of the stones in the stream looks clean, but the bottom is really dirty, covered with mud and some unknown worms. I have to be careful to avoid these things while not disturbing Mr. Crab.

"Mom! I caught it!" Finally, after my unremitting efforts, I caught the first crab.

"Very impressive~" Mother looked at me and smiled.

Unfortunately, however, I felt my butt was a little wet.

"Oh, Mom, my pants are wet by the stream." I touched it with my hand, ignoring that I was holding a crab in my other hand. The crab's claws took the opportunity to clamp my hand.

"Ahhh! Mom!" I screamed. The stinging pain on my finger skin made me shake my fingers desperately, but the crab didn't seem to let go.

“Hahaha~” Mom covered her mouth, “Put your hand in the water quickly, and it will let go.”

I hurriedly did as I was told, and Crab Sang really let go of his hand and crawled away underwater.

I pulled my hand back and took a look. Fortunately, there was no bleeding, just a little redness from the pinch.

"No bleeding?"

"Well, no."

"Your pants are wet?"

"Well, the stream was a little high, and when I squatted down, my butt got wet." I wiped my pants awkwardly, trying to dry them.

"Okay, okay, it's okay. Change it when you get home. It's hot and it will dry quickly." He rubbed my head.

"Well, are you playing here? I'm going back to do the laundry." He turned around and walked towards the pier.

"Mom, let me help you wash~"

"Hmm?" The mother seemed somewhat relieved. "Okay, then you wash your sister's clothes?"

"younger sister?"

"Yes, as an older sister you should take good care of your younger sister!"

"elder sister?"

I looked down at my body, my chest slightly bulging, and a sense of strangeness rose in my heart. The mother in front of me also became blurry. I slipped in fear and fell down. The shallow stream suddenly became bottomless, and I fell into the water and sank.

—

—

"Ah!" I shuddered. "Is this a dream?"

"Sister?" My sister rested her head on my shoulder, her eyes still sleepy, and she seemed to be awakened by my shock.

In the car, I looked around and remembered that we were on a bus back to my hometown, and I accidentally fell asleep.

"It's okay, it was just a dream."

"Is it a nightmare?" My sister looked at me worriedly.

"No, it was a good dream~"

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Unfortunately, I didn’t get to rest today. I just got home and started typing!!!

Chapter 43: A Few Things About My Hometown

After an hour's drive, we arrived at a remote mountain village.

"Sister, I feel a little carsick."

After getting off the car, my sister held my hand, her face a little pale. On the contrary, my aunt was still full of energy, not a bit carsick, and I don't know who had taken the car to send the teacher... In fact, it's not Xiaoling's fault that she has poor physical fitness. It's really because the mountain road leading into the village has too many bends, known as the 36 bends.

"Have a piece of gum." I took out the gum I bought before getting on the bus from my pocket and stuffed it into Xiaoling's pocket. It was originally prepared for my aunt, but it seemed that it would not be needed this time.

"Thank you, sister." Xiaoling took the chewing gum, carefully peeled off the unopened transparent plastic shell, tore open the paper packaging, and pulled out three pieces of green chewing gum from it.

"Sister, you and aunt each have one."

"Thank you, Xiaoling." The aunt didn't hesitate to take a piece, tore open the package and put it into her mouth.

The small mountain village has not changed much from what I remember. The only major change is that the muddy road leading into the village has become a cement road, and the small ditch beside the road is still flowing slowly. In the past, the ditch was deep with fish and shrimp, but now the water is much shallower, and the fish and shrimp are nowhere to be found.

The three of us turned into the village, turned a few corners, and walked a few dozen meters before arriving at the door of our old house. The wooden fence seemed to be half-closed, and it was barely standing in front of the door with only one side supported. My aunt just pushed it, and the fence door fell to the ground with a click. There was a small yard of about ten square meters at the entrance, with moss and unknown weeds growing on the cobblestone ground. In the middle of the yard was a kumquat tree, which was sparse and withered due to lack of care, and looked like it was about to die.

On both sides of the yard are our old houses. On one side is an old-fashioned rural two-story house with a mix of green bricks and solid wood, and a yellow mud floor and bricks. On the other side is a single-story house built a little later with red bricks and cement. Both have been damaged to varying degrees due to years of disrepair. Especially the two-story wooden house, which even looks a little crooked from the outside. There are even a few pieces of broken bricks and tiles on the ground, which makes people worry about the waterproof ability of the whole house.

"Aunt, our house won't go bankrupt, right?" Xiaoling looked a little worried.

"Probably not." I took a closer look at the load-bearing structure, and it was still intact without any major problems.

"Let's clean up first and wipe the floor, table and other things in the room." Aunt said as she took out the key from her pocket, opened the door and walked in.

"Good" X2

When I opened the door, a musty smell came out. In addition, the old house had very poor lighting, and the house was dark, which made it look even more dilapidated. The old-fashioned furniture was covered with a thick layer of dust, which was still firmly stuck to it when I touched it with my hands and was difficult to wipe off.

"Xiao Meng, open the window." My aunt found a broom and dustpan from some room and came out to say to me.

I nodded and did as I was told. Then, the not-so-warm sunlight came in through the window, illuminating the dust in the air with a pale white glow. The Tyndall phenomenon, which was sometimes strong and sometimes weak as the air flowed, revealed that the PM value here was off the charts.

“Bring some masks next time.”

"Ah."

"Xiao Meng, do you still remember living here?" my aunt suddenly asked.

“A little bit.”

"Xiao Ling is gone, right?"

"Well, no more."

"I still remember the two of you sitting by the stove waiting to eat the stewed sweet potatoes." Auntie laughed, as if she remembered something funny. "The sweet potatoes were too hot when you got them. You switched from your left hand to your right hand, and then from your right hand to your left hand, like you were doing acrobatics."

After hearing what my aunt said, I seem to have some impression. I remember that my grandfather liked to bake sweet potatoes for me the most, but he passed away not long after, and the only impression left was the taste of sweet potatoes.

"Xiaoling is still young, Xiaomeng, just take a bite to test the temperature, blow on it, and make sure it's not too hot before feeding it to your sister. That's so loving."

Is there such a thing?! My face turned slightly red. My heart is still not pure enough, Ami Tofu!

"I don't remember anything at all." Xiaoling looked very disappointed and glanced at me a few times.

"If you want to eat some, we can buy some on the way back!"

"Yeah." I nodded. I also wanted to eat roasted sweet potatoes. I missed the aroma that wafted out when I broke open the hot sweet potatoes.

"Is the little kid from the Li family back?" A familiar voice came from the door.

"Grandma?" I turned around and saw a familiar but distant figure. I remembered that she was the old lady from the neighbor's house. When I was a child, I often went to her house to eat snacks. Grandma was also happy to make fried rice cakes for us. Later, her son and daughter-in-law all went to live in Shanghai, but she stubbornly didn't want to go, as if she was not used to it or something. I don't know what happened afterwards.

"Oh, Xiaomeng, you've grown so big! You've grown taller after not seeing you for several years." She was a little excited, and because of her hunched back, she had to look up at me.

"Mother-in-law?" Xiaoling felt a little unfamiliar and shy. She was too young at that time, so it was normal that she had no impression of her.

"Is this Xiaoling?" Grandma slowly turned around and looked at her younger sister. "This pair of sisters look so alike. So pretty."

My mother-in-law excitedly held my hand and took me to her room. But my skin was rough and shriveled because of years of farm work, and it hurt me a little. "Come here, I have rice cakes at home, which you loved to eat when you were young."

"How embarrassing!" I wanted to refuse, but I didn't dare to use force. The old man looked like he would fall at any moment, and his steps were unsteady.

"You were so greedy when you were little, why do you start being a guest now that you're older?"

It was hard to refuse, so I had to agree.

“The little kid from the Li family has had a really hard life… The world is unpredictable, it’s a sin, a sin…” the mother-in-law muttered to herself as she took out an old aluminum box of biscuits from her cupboard and opened the round lid with great effort.

"I'll find you a plastic bag." Mother-in-law looked around, put the tube on the table, and went to the drawer next to her to look for a plastic bag.

So the polite mother-in-law poured most of the remaining rice cake into the plastic bag.

After coming back from my mother-in-law's place, I gave some of the dried rice cake to Xiaoling.

"Is it tasty?"

"so so."

“So it doesn’t taste good?”

"Well, it tastes a little bit bad."

It really wasn't very tasty. There was no seasoning at all. It was just the rice cake sliced ​​and fried in a pan without even any oil. It was a bit hard because it had been there for a while. The only flavor left was a little aftertaste.

My aunt came over with a smile and said, "There are so many delicious foods now. Of course you think it doesn't taste good. Take it, take it home, and it's not too late to eat a few slices occasionally to savor it."

"Ah."

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It’s time to get off work and start writing!

Chapter 2: A Few Things About My Hometown ()

It was already 4pm when I finished cleaning. The sun, which was like the light in the refrigerator, had disappeared into the thick clouds. The not-so-high temperature dropped a few degrees.

"Are you cold?" asked my aunt.

"A little bit." I nodded. Xiaoling beside me was already shivering. She kept rubbing her hands in her big down jacket.

"Give me your hand." Aunt stretched out her hand to warm us.

"It's okay, I'm not cold." I shook my head and then said to Xiaoling, "Xiaoling, put your hand under my hat behind me, it's warm there."