During the three years of economic difficulties, a large number of people who escaped from famine in Anhui, Jiangsu, and other provinces were absorbed by the farm as farmers or forest workers. They settled in the production teams or forest teams under the ten sub-farms (the main farm was located in Zhoutian) distributed in the 400 square kilometers of the farm. They accounted for more than 70% of the total population of the farm, about 24,000 or 25,000 people, and became the main labor force engaged in farm production activities.
These farmers and forest workers who escaped from the famine had a strong survival ability. They could quickly obtain living conditions from these hundreds of square kilometers of mountain forest land. Their ability to adapt to survival was far superior to my parents 'ability to make a living.
They mixed acorns, bitter chestnuts, hairy chestnuts, hawthorns, waxberries, roots, leaves, wild vegetables and other non-toxic barks, roots, leaves, and rice bran, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes from the mountains and forests into a pulp, and then baked the pulp into The (or steamed) small round cakes were sold on the streets of Zhoutian for a dime each and became the most popular food. As soon as they appeared, they would be snatched up by people. University students, miners, and children of government officials would fight to buy these small cakes to eat.
This kind of small cake tasted bitter with a sweet taste. Because of the addition of rice bran, it also had the fragrance of rice. It was originally a coarse thing and was difficult to swallow. However, after they grinded it, mixed it, and baked it, it became the most delicious snack at that time.(If it was now, people would use some food hygiene standards to test whether this natural wild plant mixture was harmful to the human body. However, it was not necessary at that time. As long as it did not kill people, it would be fine. However, no one had ever heard of poisoning from eating this kind of small cake.)
In the second semester of the fourth grade (at the turn of spring and summer), my body was severely anemia-like due to malnutrition. Coupled with the constant torture of heartache since childhood, my body was simply unable to take it. Whenever I lowered my head and raised my head, stars would appear in front of my eyes. My face was as yellow as straw paper. My classmates and teachers said that my face was the same as the face of a dead person. It was very scary to look at. They thought that I had rabies (at that time, due to malnutrition, people's bodies lacked the ability to resist the virus, and there were often outbreak of infectious rabies) and avoided me at a distance. As long as I stood in front of my classmates, they would avoid me. How could I not know that my face was ugly, but I knew that I did not suffer from diabetes.
Mother felt sorry for me, so she secretly went to Zhou Tiankou to buy bran cakes for me. After we went to school (we took the small road), she would go around the main road (her feet couldn't walk on the hillside road) to Zhou Tiankou, waiting for the farmers who sold the bran cakes to come from the mountains (most of them lived in the forest farm in the mountains). If she didn't guard there in advance, it would be difficult to buy them (they didn't bring much every morning, usually only 20 or 30. After selling them, they had to go back to work).
In order not to let my brothers know about this matter, my mother told me that during the morning exercise, she would stand under the bus stop next to the sports field and wait for me. Every time I received a hot pancake from my mother, I would swallow it with tears in my eyes. This was the only nutritional supplement that my mother could give me during those difficult times. The true feelings contained in the pancake exceeded the value of all the treasures in the world, such as ginseng and deer antler.(Life is ten thousand times better now than it was then. Every time I eat buttered bread with my grandson at McDonald's, the life-saving pancake from back then will always appear in my mind. Perhaps, what people need more today is no longer buttered bread.)"However, when my grandson heard my wife and I talking about the small bran cake, he actually clamored for Grandma to eat the small bran cake. He even said that you guys ate such green food back then and how healthy it was. That's right, when Mother bought me the bran cake, I was one year older than my nine-year-old grandson. Time and space have changed, and life has become better, but I can't tell my grandson about the hunger and suffering of that year.
Education was always idealistic. No matter how difficult life was at that time, the essay topic assigned by the teacher was still praising "How happy our life is today". Looking at the essay topic assigned by the teacher,"How happy our life is today", I thought of the Camphor tree seeds by the river, the wormwood grass on the hillside, my mother's poisoning from eating the sea lily by mistake, and the kind cook in the canteen who made the soup for our big bones. He thought of the braised pork and rice that Dad had brought back from working overtime that night, the small bran cake that Mom had bought for him, and the wolf that Dad had encountered on the mountain road in the middle of the night…Really, he thought of too much, too much.
On this day, during Chinese class, the teacher used a pushpin on the blackboard (wooden board) to stick an essay book on the blackboard. The content of the essay was opened and the cover was stuck to the blackboard, so no one could see whose essay book it was. After the teacher was done, he announced that he would let a student come up and read the essay first. Then, he would let everyone comment on how well the essay was written.
The teacher insisted that I go up and read it. I walked up to the podium and looked at the open essay book. This word was written by me, and the content was also written by me. I was overjoyed. The teacher must have thought that this essay was written well, so he used it to explain.
The teacher asked me to start reading. First, read the topic of the essay, then read the body of the essay. I read my essay," Our life today is so happy "," Compared with the miserable old society, our life today is so happy. We have defeated the big landlord and the people have become the masters. Take our family as an example. The cook of the copper mine canteen saw that our family had never eaten meat before, so he gave us the big bones cooked in the canteen. Dad broke the big bones and made a pot of soup. It tasted so delicious. Our whole family ate it happily. If it was in the old society, the big landowners wouldn't even give the poor wild vegetables to eat. How could they let my family eat such good bone soup?……Therefore, compared to the evil old society, our life today is so blissful!”
I had just read the sentence " The cook gave our big bones " when the students sitting below laughed. The teacher stopped me from laughing and let me continue reading. After that, I read a sentence and the audience laughed. I couldn't tell if it was funny or not. After I finished reading, I returned to my seat. The teacher opened his mouth and asked loudly," Everyone, what do you think of this essay?”Before anyone could answer, she immediately said," It's a mess. What big bone soup? What big bone soup in the old society? What a mess. What's written there?”The more she spoke, the angrier she became. She ordered," Who wrote this? Stand up!"”，I was at a loss. I didn't know who to ask to stand up. The whole class was stunned. The teacher said sternly," Still not standing up?”，She looked at me and I remembered that this was my essay.
I stood up numbly. Dozens of pairs of eyes focused on me. I didn't dare to look at any of my classmates 'eyes. It was as if there were dozens of bees buzzing in my ears. The surrounding voices became weak and small, and my heart seemed to be about to explode. The smugness on the podium just now had long flown to the clouds. My fingers unnaturally grabbed the corner of the table, and my legs kept shaking. I couldn't stand strong, so I quickly used my hands to support myself on the edge of the table to prevent my body from shaking.
"Have you never eaten meat before?" The teacher asked,"Eat…" I thought of the braised pork that dad brought back from working overtime, but I didn't eat it. How can I write without eating it? Students shouldn't lie! I really regret not eating a small piece of red braised pork that night. Didn't my parents call me for so long? I really shouldn't have pretended to sleep. If I had eaten red braised pork that night, even if I had tasted a little rice with red braised sauce, I could have written it in my essay! But I really didn't eat any meat. The only thing I can write is this big bone soup!
I hesitated and couldn't answer." Have you eaten meat before?”The teacher asked again," I've eaten…No, no…I haven't eaten…" "Speak more clearly." My voice was as weak as a mosquito's hum. Even I myself couldn't tell if I had spoken or not."Hmm…" No…"No,""You haven't eaten meat, nor have you eaten white rice?”The teacher's voice was not as loud as before." Eat, eat…" I tried hard to think, which meal is rice without vegetables? "Why haven't you eaten white rice before?”Seeing that I was hesitant to answer such a simple question, she added," Hmm... If I put in the vegetables, does it count as white rice?" The teacher was stunned." Have you eaten sweet potatoes before?”This sentence was obviously meant by the teacher with contempt.”，I suddenly remembered picking up sweet potatoes by the roadside. My eyes couldn't help but look at where Yi Fan was sitting. The students also followed my gaze. I didn't know why I was looking at Yi Fan. The teacher was also puzzled. Yi Fan looked at me with eyes full of sympathy for me. He stood up and whispered," His family might be in trouble."”Yi Fan's words made the entire class turn their eyes back to me. The teacher didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he took out the essay of the best student in the class and explained it.
First of all, I have to admit that my essay is the worst in the class. This can't be blamed on not eating meat or white rice. Yifan was the class 'study committee member, so it was only natural for me to ask her for help when I was in trouble. Yifan didn't say the word " poor ", nor did she say that I picked up sweet potatoes by the roadside. Instead, she used the word " difficult " to modify this " embarrassment " for me.
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