Hundred Days of Prose

When we first got married, my mother and I had been doing chemical fiber business in a county in Guangyuan, and my husband was working in a factory in Daxian. When I was almost three months pregnant, my husband fell ill in the factory and was hospitalized for nearly a month. It was 1985. If you were sick and hospitalized, you could ask a doctor to issue a leave certificate. My husband took the opportunity to take a few months off to help me in Guangyuan. My mother was not used to the climate and life outside, and she was not at ease at home. After her husband came, my mother went home to do business.

At that time, we had just gotten married, had no money, and no real home, because my husband’s home was in the countryside of Lu County, and he was the replacement for his father-in-law after he was injured and retired from the factory. My natal family is in a town in Lu County. Our homes on both sides happen to belong to the same county, but they are in different directions, close to the borders of the other two counties, and relatively far apart.

My husband’s family has five brothers and sisters, and he is the eldest brother. I have four brothers and sisters, and I am also the eldest. At that time, in addition to her husband working, her father-in-law's pension was only available to her, and her mother-in-law earned some work points in the production team. My younger siblings were still young, and my grandmother was bedridden for many years and needed to be taken care of for food and housing. My father-in-law was injured in the factory and could not work. Before getting married, after excluding his own living expenses, the husband had to send all the remaining money back to support the family. We got married, and my husband didn’t have any savings. We got a marriage certificate, but we didn’t hold a wedding. We went to my husband’s factory for almost a month and lived in a single dormitory that other workers had squeezed into other dormitories for us to live in.

Fortunately, my natal family has always been in business. I had been taking care of the business for my family before. One year before I got married, my parents gave me a capital of 500 yuan to run the business alone. He said that in the future, every daughter will be arranged like this when she gets married, so that we can have a foundation for life and the ability to survive after we get married.

So, after I got pregnant, I insisted on doing business outside with my husband. It was a full 8 months before I went back to my mother-in-law’s house to wait for the birth. After returning home, I gave the remaining goods to my mother and asked her to help I handled it. In addition to the few hundred yuan I had left with me to prepare for my childbirth at home, the goods I handled and all the cash totaled a total of 2,700 yuan. My husband and I agreed that the money would be deposited with my mother first, and would be used to buy furniture and appliances when the factory allocates us housing.

After we give birth to the baby, we want to move the room where the baby and I live in the factory so that we can line up for a room. Because there are many people in the factory and few rooms, it is necessary for both husband and wife to be in the factory. Points are calculated based on the length of service and usual attendance, and then the rooms are allocated in batches starting from the highest score. There will be one every year Each person is assigned a house.

My son happened to be born in the middle of the first month of 1986. My husband had been taking sick leave before. Both parents were trying to force my husband to go back to work early. At that time, it was not easy to have a job, a stable income, and a house to share. , regarded as an iron rice bowl. I'm afraid that my husband will lose his job if he takes too long a leave. So just 18 days after our son was born, my husband reluctantly left us and returned to the factory to work. Before leaving, he told me that after the full moon, I would take my son to a photo studio on the street to take photos and send them to him. He also told me to go to the factory with my son as soon as possible. He would rent a house and wait for us mother and son.

After my husband returned to the factory, I wrote to him to tell him about all the changes in my son, so that he could share my joy of becoming a mother for the first time. Tell him to wait until his son is 100 days old before sending him the photos. Since it is several miles away from the street, it would be better to take the baby out when the weather is warm.

My husband loves beauty and face very much. When working at home and farming, he always wears old clothes neatly. No matter how late work is, he has to clean the front and back of the house before going to bed.

When my son turned 100 days old, my mother-in-law and I took our son to the street and took two photos. The son is wearing a small-sized coat with dark flowers on a white background, and a small blue vest on the outside. Wearing a small hat with ruffles. I took a photo of one wearing a hat and one with a bald head. Originally, my son was good-looking and had a good camera. The two photos were taken very well and he looked very cute. I asked my mother-in-law to wash more photos, and my husband might have to send 10 of them, because several of my husband’s well-behaved workers are not married and have children, and there are a few well-behaved fellow villagers who all want to send photos of their sons. . The elderly people on both sides should keep a few at home, and we should also keep two to save for our son.

When my son was born, he was beautiful, neither fat nor thin, with delicate features, a high nose and big eyes. The facial features are quite delicate. However, my husband feels that when the children are born, they are almost all the same, and it is hard to tell what they look like. It takes a few months to tell whether the children are beautiful or ugly.

My husband, who loves face, has been feeling unsure since returning to the factory. He is very afraid that his son will look ugly and is too embarrassed to send the photos. So when he received the photos I sent, his first reaction was to hide in the factory. When he went to the bathroom, he kept his eyes closed even from opening the envelope to taking out the photo. He touched the photo here and there without daring to open his eyes.

I just quietly looked at the photos in the bathroom and made sure that my son was good-looking and the photos were taken well. Then I felt relieved and rushed out quickly, sending every one of them away in one go. .

"Stealing Salted Eggs"

Our whole family loves to eat salted eggs. Every time during the holidays, or on the birthdays of adults and children, my mother-in-law will bring us salted eggs from the countryside. Because my husband loves to eat it.

The salted eggs made by my mother-in-law are particularly delicious and I never get tired of eating them. In the past, my mother-in-law made salted eggs in a traditional way. She used the snow water from the winter snow and put it in a sealable jar. Then she put an appropriate amount of salt into the jar, then washed the duck eggs, soaked them in a jar that had been seasoned with salt, and sealed it. After many months, just take it out and cook it when you want to eat it. This way, the taste is pure and tender, and the egg yolk is brightly colored.

Another advantage of using snow water to soak eggs is that the salt water can be used repeatedly. Every time you put in a new duck egg, you only need to add a small amount of salt. The disadvantage is that the longer the soaking time , the eggs will be saltier. Now my mother-in-law has a new way of making salted eggs. First wash and dry the duck eggs, pour the white wine into a bowl, mix in table salt with a small amount of spice powder, roll the duck eggs in the wine, and add the mixed salt. Roll it in a circle, then put the salted eggs into an airtight plastic bag and tie it tightly. It can be cooked and eaten after one month. This method has a more delicate texture, the egg yolk is golden yellow, and the oil is shiny. Moreover, no matter how long it is stored, it will be salty and appropriate.

Speaking of eating salted eggs, my husband made a big joke when he was a kid. At that time, the father-in-law and uncle had no separate families. There were 5 children on the father-in-law's side and 5 children on the uncle's side. Only my uncle, aunt, and mother-in-law can earn work points in the production team. My father-in-law works in other places, and my grandmother is too old to work. The 10 brothers and sisters are all at an age where they can’t eat enough. Life at home is very difficult, and we often don’t have enough food or clothing to keep warm. In addition to my father-in-law sending me some money every month to supplement the family income, the family occasionally raises chickens and ducks, and sells the eggs on the street in exchange for some oil, salt, needlework, and needlework. Grandma’s usual medicine.

Sometimes I make some salted eggs. If it’s a child’s birthday, boil a few and give them to the children. Each child eats a quarter of an egg. One morning, my husband went to school on the street to eat some porridge. The porridge was said to be thicker than rice soup. He was hungry before he even went out after carrying his schoolbag. When the family was not paying attention, the husband opened the jar, touched a duck egg and put it in his schoolbag. After walking for a while, he couldn't see his house, so he took out the egg and peeled it. When he saw that it was still clear water, he thought that it might not be soaked yet, so he threw it away. About 10 days later, I touched another one. I peeled it outside and it was still not cooked. I touched it after a few days and it was still not cooked. I didn’t dare to touch it anymore for fear of being discovered by adults because there weren’t many in the jar. , it hurts to lose it.

Once when there were guests at home, his mother asked him to touch salted eggs to entertain the guests. He followed his mother around in the kitchen to see how she would peel them. It turned out that the salted eggs were not soaked and had to be boiled before they could be eaten.