Chapter 1: Yellow Rice
My name is Choi Sok Fei, as in "do whatever you want". Don't you think it's a strange name? It sounds like "Cui Zuofei". In fact, I'm not happy with this name either. But according to the order of names in the family tree, my generation is exactly guilty of the word "作". Moreover, my parents were not very educated, so when they heard that I was given this name, it really gave them a headache for a while. Later on, my father had a flash of insight and took out a dictionary, saying that he would use the first character of the page he turned to as my name. Coincidentally, the first word on the page we turned to happened to be an invalid word. At this point, my mother refused, who wants their child's name to be "作废"? She fully embodied the toughness of the northeastern women, and said that she could not let her child be ruined just like that.
So my father compromised, pointing to a non-character on the same page, and told my mother, "Let's call our eldest son Zuofei," hoping that he would grow up to be a good man. I hope he will grow up to be something extraordinary. My name was thus hastily decided.
What I am going to tell you next, you can listen to it as a story, don't take it too seriously.
My hometown is called Longjiang, which is a small county around Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province. My grandfather told me that Longjiang County used to be called Zhujiakan. As the saying goes, the temple small demon wind big, small town is a lot of right and wrong, is such a town, next to the forest actually live in a group of beard. Friends who live in the northeast should know what the beard is, that is, bandits, figuratively speaking, and Linhai Xueyuan in the Zashanjiao almost, and now this side of the former artillery converted to a water tower. Often times of war is the time of the most strange things. A lot of folklore comes from those times. For example, this one about my grandfather when he was young.
My grandfather was twenty-eight years old, and the winter in the Northeast can freeze to death. Now it's not so bad, but I heard my grandfather say that the winter in the past was several times colder than now. There's a saying, "It's freezing in Laxi Laxi, and it's freezing off your chin. It seems that when you go out to relieve yourself, you have to take a small stick and knock while urinating, otherwise you will freeze. Of course, this is all beyond my understanding.
We do not have the habit of drinking Laha congee on Laha, honestly, I have never seen what Laha congee looks like. We eat yellow rice, also known as sticky rice, is the kind of sticky rice that can not be separated from the grain. It's horrible to get it on your chin. It is even more unimaginable for a man with a beard to eat it.
Despite the years of famine, Northeastern women would try to calculate the precious grain to ensure that they could have a meal during the holidays. My grandmother was one such woman. My family used to live in a factory compound with five families, and my grandpa would go out to work during the day, and my grandma would pick up the chores at home. This day happens to be Lahai, grandma took out half a year to save up the yellow rice panned once the water, there is also a saying here, different now, before the fine grains are basically not panned, because of the precious food, so how much can stay as much as possible to stay, after all, the family of several people. The hardship of life can be imagined.
The rice goes into the pot and the lid is put on. Pods in the stove pit burned very strong, not long after the pot came out a burst of rice aroma. And by this time it was about six o'clock in the evening, the days are very short in winter, and it was already pitch black at this hour. It was windy outside and there was no moon. Scrape up the snow on the ground hit people's faces, knife scraping like pain, my grandmother sat on a small horse, thinking about grandpa is also coming back soon, thinking, thinking, but also fell asleep in a daze, listening to her talk, she remembered very deeply, that time she dreamed of a similar to the yellow skin of the thing in front of her waving around, this is my grandmother's original words, how to drive away can not be driven away. Just as she was getting angry and wanted to pick up stones to throw at it, she was awakened by a knock on the door.
Listening to the voice is the yard across the door of the old Zhai family's daughter-in-law, she knocked on the door and shouted: "Xiao Cui sister-in-law, quickly come out to look at that, caught a pickpocket hole in the wall!"
The so-called pickpocket hole in the wall, is a means of theft at that time, the yard at that time are dirt walls, and quite high, but not strong, if the thief over the wall and into the wall will also have to put the wall down the risk of thieves, so some of the thieves will come up with a pickpocket hole in the wall of the trick, because at that time, every family has a stupid dog, but basically let the dog out of the search for their own food, because people do not have to eat. And some dogs sometimes a go is a small day, the gate is locked, you can not enter the yard, so the general home of the earth wall will leave a dog hole for the dog. These thieves will take advantage of these dog holes to make articles. At night using a shovel to expand the dog hole drilled into the yard to steal food, or drug to the yard dog medicine over after carrying home to eat meat.
And this thief is really stupid enough, this is when it dares to drill the hole in the wall, the result is the yard of the old Zhai head caught a square, I guess it may really really hungry. My grandmother went out to see, only to see every family living in the yard have come out to see the fun, the old Zhai head of the wall is using his feet to put the thief dead on the ground, the thief raised his head and looked at the people around, eyes full of fear.
According to my grandmother's recollection, the thief was not from the village, because everyone didn't know him. He looked to be about 40 or so years old with a surprisingly sharp face. Staying in a moustache like a rat, a tattered cotton jacket wrapped around his body. Thieving little eyes poking around.
At this time, my grandfather came back, looked at the thief was stepped on the ground, sighed. Heart in the world to live is really not easy, but the cat has the cat way, the mouse has the mouse way. Now you fall into our hands, you have to admit it.
Reality is cruel, especially in the years when human life is as cheap as grass. People in this village are starving, if you let go of this thief from nowhere, then there will be no peaceful days in the future. Speaking of here to bring out a sum, not that the people of that time cruel, but indeed life is forced, if not kill him he will continue to scourge the area later. This is living in our era of people can not understand.
My grandfather looked at the ground thieves, then asked my grandmother to the pot of yellow rice, and then beat a scoop of cold water. My grandmother did as she was told, just out of the pot of yellow rice exudes a tantalizing aroma of rice, the ground thieves smell the aroma also came to the spirit. Not to speak, just can't stop sniffing with his nose. Two small eyes can not stop blinking.
The yard of the group together hands to the thief three times tied up, served rice grandfather said to him, not we do not give you a way out, but we really can not live. We are not easy, you eat a full meal on the road! In your next life, be born into a good family.
After saying this, he used chopsticks to dig up a large piece of yellow rice and put it into the mouth of the thief with some cold water. The thief was hungry, that cared a lot, he quickly swallowed the rice, but also to my grandfather hehehe smile. Totally do not know has been a big trouble.
Here you see the official to ask, why feed food to this thief? People who have eaten yellow rice are clear, yellow rice just out of the pot when the temperature wants to be when the high temperature, basically can reach the boiling point of the temperature of the water. And this is indeed the last supper for the thief. Because the yellow rice is very sticky, clamped up piece by piece. It also stuck to the cool water, so there was a big difference between the temperature of the surface layer and the temperature of the inner layer. It is warm in the mouth, but when swallowed into the stomach it will scald the stomach half raw.
When the bowl of yellow rice was about to go down, all the women in the yard went back inside because they didn't want to see the horrible scene below. My grandmother also went inside, when she had just sat down on the bed. Then she heard the miserable screams that went on and on. After tossing and turning for a long time, the sound stopped. Cowardly grandmother's heart pounding, imagining the appearance of the death of the thief, mouth desperately open, like a kettle, water vapor desperately from the stomach through the esophagus and finally through the mouth out.
About an hour later, my grandfather came back, he entered the door and first patted the snow on his body. Then he put down the table for dinner and greeted my grandmother. When my grandmother heard this, she got up, took out the dishes, put small pickles on the table, and added oil to the kerosene lamp. The soju was already warmed up. My grandfather drank it with the pickles. Grandma took the lid off the pot and put two bowls of rice on the table. But her heart was still disturbed by the thief just now.
When my grandfather saw my grandmother's face, he put down his chopsticks and said to her, "Look at you, you're finished. Even a stinking blind man can scare you enough." My grandmother sighed and looked at the snow outside. She said to my grandpa, "We shouldn't have killed him, it's still a human life."
My grandfather picked up a small wine cup and drank a mouthful of it, then said: "You think I think ah, this blind flow of son most likely is the beard put down to keep an eye on. Think about it, he's not from our town, the nearest town has all the people gone, and suddenly there's a big living person. If he's not a bearded man, what is he? If we don't kill him now, if he goes back to the mountain and tells Beard that we still have yellow rice to eat, and they come down to rob us, how can we live this year?" When my grandmother heard about the bearded man, she was suddenly frightened.
As I mentioned before, when it was not liberated, the bearded men in the Northeast were considered local hegemony, and usually only robbed landlords or rich people's homes, but what year was this? Hungry crazy time does not care whether your family has no money bottom, as long as it is a household to scavenge, see rice grab rice, see livestock drag livestock. Make the local people dare not say anything. The good thing is that most of them are poor families before they fall into the grass, things basically will not do. Always leave a mouth to eat to be robbed family. But the food left behind is generally less pathetic. This is looking at the New Year. After the New Year is the green and yellow February and March. How can this grain support it? So many of the old landlords used to flee the landlord is the beard is harmed by leaving their homes and fleeing the famine.
These beards usually send one or two "whistles" before going down the mountain first down the mountain to spy, see which family eat well, there is a "base". Then go back to report, and then they will come down a group of people on these "bottom" of the home robbery. If you let him search honestly, it's not so bad. But if you resist a little, these guys will kill you like a game. After you die, you will be thrown into the mountains to let the wolves gnaw and rats bite, the family can not even get a whole body.
