Request the original text of "The Story of Food" and "Ordinary Laborers" by Wang Yuanjian

Wang Yuanjian's "The Story of Food"

When I was a child, there was always not enough food at home, so there were many stories about food.

At that time, the most important day of each month was the day when rations were distributed. The production team leader shouted from the ridge at the head of the village, and people from each family gathered in the old ancestral hall, carrying baskets of grain, waiting to pick up their own grain. The rations were calculated based on the work points of each family. If the family had more strong laborers, the work points would naturally be more, and they could finish picking one load and then pick another load, making other families jealous. My uncle's family has four men and several daughters who basically work full time, so they always have a large share of the food. Of course, there are also misfortunes. For example, my fourth uncle's family across the mountain is very pitiful. When it is time to distribute rations, my fourth aunt always goes to the old ancestral hall with hope, but always returns empty-handed, because my fourth uncle is fooling around in other places. The children are young, and the work points are not enough to meet the basic level, so she does not get a share of the rations. When it got dark, the fourth aunt would move a wooden ladder up to the wall of her house, crying bitterly and calling her husband's name. She cried so hard that the smoke from every house could no longer rise. Women in the village had to go to the ladder. The next piece of advice. I don’t know who came up with the idea, saying that as long as the patrons cry and call like this every day, the men will become flustered outside and have to go back to their hometown. As a result, the fourth aunt's voice suffered greatly, and the men, women, and children in the village were also quite miserable for a while. I even hid far away from the fourth aunt's house every night. Later, when the fourth aunt got tired of crying and the fourth uncle didn't come back, and there wasn't even an extra ration of food, the fourth aunt stopped talking and beat the child at home to vent her anger. Later, the fourth uncle came back with great honor, bringing back a set of hard Qigong, capable of breaking bricks and splitting rocks. It is said that he got through the big and small Zhoutian, and his children immediately forgot about hunger. Become proud.

The first time I heard about the words preserved egg and cake was from the children of my fourth uncle’s family. Because the fourth uncle has traveled far and wide, there is no doubt that he is well-informed, so it is logical that his children have eaten cakes, although my friends and I are sometimes a little disdainful. I still remember when his children talked about preserved eggs, it was on a winter morning, under the low ridge of his house. At that time, the sun was a little rose-red, there was no temperature, but it felt very warm. When we were kicking pebbles and showing off the most delicious food we had ever eaten in a hungry state, the eldest son of our fourth uncle mentioned preserved eggs. His high-spirited look made our souls spread the wings of our imagination. At that time, I had a serious confusion in my heart: Eggs made of skin should be very hard, how can they be delicious? However, I didn't have the nerve to ask at that time because I was afraid that my fourth uncle's well-informed son would laugh at me. However, I do remember that morning. What I cannot forget is the rose-colored sunshine in the winter morning.

My father was a teacher in a middle school at that time, and the three main workers in the family were all women, so the work points were always very low. My mother said that dozens of dollars of basic food were always deducted from my family. Jin, so being hungry is a common thing. One time, the food shortage at home was so severe that my father went to the side street and bought a load of rotten sweet potatoes. He cooked them for us to eat without even scraping the skins off. It is said that the children in our family eat very well.

Among the worse foods, I have also eaten rice cooked with yellowed rice. There is plenty of rain in the south, and it often rains during the harvest season. Sometimes, a large piece of rice is cut down by the hot young laborers, and God starts raining. The rice loses its transparent luster in the muddy water, and sometimes even sprouted. The rice cooked by retting rice is extremely unpalatable. I don't know exactly how unpalatable it is. I only know that adults always denounce retting rice and regard it as the source of all evil. One year, the captain probably made a mistake and planted too much glutinous rice. Unfortunately, the glutinous rice was soaked by the rain and turned into retting glutinous rice. Now everyone in the village suffered. That year, my stomach never seemed to be clear, and I thought the whole world was so slimy and dull.

Of course, poor and lower-middle peasants also have their own delicacies. Because rice is always in short supply, my mother always adds sweet potatoes and other things to the rice.

Suddenly, a loud shout woke me up, and it seemed as if a wolf was about to escape from Old Shui's eyes - while he was dozing off, chickens and pigs had already visited me several times.

If God suddenly rains heavily, the strong laborers in the village will come from the fields to help us collect grain. With everyone working together, the pellets will be returned to the warehouse soon. When the weather is good, in the evening, I have to gather the grains spread out into piles of rice, put them into the basket, and have Old Shui carry them into the ancestral hall. When the wooden shovel, millet and cement floor rubbed together, they made an extremely unpleasant sharp scream. But what comforted me was that the summer sunset had a loud lemon yellow color. When it slowly set, it made me The shadow is reflected on a white wall below the rice field, like a movie. My shadow was so clear, so soft, and so long, as if I had performed that way for several lifetimes.