Chapter 63: Pouring Vegetables
We talked about beating at noon, and in the afternoon, De Ge'er was beaten with a stick again because he didn't practice calligraphy seriously, and his strokes were in a mess, making it a mess. Master Zheng taught him over and over again, but he still didn't write in order.
Unable to bear it any longer, Master Zheng gave him several beatings with a big board. The only thing to be thankful for was that this time his buttocks were thick with flesh, so it hurt during the beating but it didn't hurt afterwards.
After practicing calligraphy for an entire afternoon, I looked up and saw that it was time to end the class.
Sun Shan picked up his book box, slate and lunch box and hurried to the school gate. He said goodbye to Zheng Bo and his classmate Yang Qingbei, then took De Ge'er and followed Su home.
Sun Shan walked a few steps and saw a middle-aged man holding Yang Qingbei's hand. He said he was the housekeeper of the family, responsible for picking up and dropping off the children at school.
After walking for half an hour, we returned to Sunjia Village.
De Geer whispered, "Shanzi, you must not tell anyone about the beating I received, understand?"
Sun Shan said expressionlessly, "I won't tell Uncle San and Aunt San on my own initiative, but if they ask, I will tell them everything and I won't lie for you."
After saying that, he followed Su without looking back, which made De Ge'er scratch his ears and cheeks anxiously.
After returning home, Su hurried to work in the fields. Spring was approaching, and the sowing season was approaching. Su prepared the fields and waited for Sun Bomin to come back so that they could start spring ploughing.
Sun Shan put down his bookcase, finished the homework assigned by his teacher, and then went to the well to practice calligraphy.
It turns out that handwriting is entirely acquired through practice. Nowadays, the font size is getting smaller and smaller, and the grids on paper are also getting smaller and smaller. Even if you practice handwriting repeatedly, you will not exceed the grid.
Master Zheng commented on Sun Shan's calligraphy: "Every stroke is straight and neat. It is clear, but there is no beauty."
Mr. Zheng likes Yang Qingbei's calligraphy more. He writes stroke by stroke and yet he can create an artistic feeling. Mr. Zheng thinks his calligraphy is too soft and lacks strength. He hopes that the pen tip can be sharper.
As for De Ge'er, he had the ugliest handwriting among the three. He couldn't even stack the words in the grid without going out of bounds, so he was scolded the harshest by Master Zheng.
Sun Shan thought that he should practice slowly now, at least write smaller characters. When the characters are bigger, he can practice strength. After all, he is small and his wrists are weak, so the characters he writes are not solemn enough.
After practicing calligraphy, Sun Shan said to his elder sister Guyu, "Sister, I want to go to the fields."
I have to tell her that Sun Boming, Su and the sisters in the family are all keeping a close eye on Sun Shan. If I leave without saying goodbye, my eldest sister will definitely cry out of anxiety.
Guyu looked at the sky and saw that the sun was about to set, so he said, "Shanzi, it's getting late, so we should not go out."
Sun Shan shook his head and said, "Sister, I feel dizzy from practicing calligraphy. I'm going out for some fresh air."
Hearing this, Guyu stopped talking. Not to mention Shanzi, she and her sisters also felt dizzy from practicing. She felt the same way and said seriously, "Then go out for a while and come back. Don't go too far and don't go to the stream to play in the water."
Sun Shan quickly said, "I'm going to the vegetable garden to look for Grandma and Mother. I don't want to play in the water."
Guyu nodded. Her younger brother was still reassuring. He had been well-behaved and quiet since he was young. He was not like the naughty boy next door who went up mountains and into rivers, climbed trees and hurt birds.
He ordered, "Don't go too far, only to the vegetable fields."
Sun Shan said he understood, walked out of the yard, and walked along the country path. When he met villagers along the way, he called out to them, calling them uncles, aunts, and aunts. Anyway, they would respond when they heard you call, and they didn't mind what you called them.
Sun Shan’s vegetable garden is not far from his home, next to the village’s threshing ground.
There is a small stream passing by here, which is convenient for watering the vegetables. Most of the vegetable fields in the village are concentrated here.
In the early spring, everything is full of life, weeds are growing wildly, and there are piles of small flowers on the roadside.
Sun Shan soon found Su and Huang. One of them was watering the vegetables, while the other was picking them.
The dishes that have just been rinsed have a smell of urine, but once you get used to it, you can accept it.
There is not much fertilizer in the village. The most common fertilizer is urine and feces. First, carry out a bucket of pure urine, then add some water to dilute it, and then sprinkle it on the vegetables.
Huang was picking the cabbage hearts that had not been peed on. Some of them had grown old because they were not picked in time, and were blooming yellow cauliflowers one after another.
From a distance, it can be seen that most of the villagers grow Chinese cabbage. There are rows of cauliflowers blooming here and there, creating a unique beauty.
"Grandma, Mom." Sun Shan called from afar.
Huang responded with a smile and said, "Shanzi, how did you get here?"
Su stopped the long spoon in her hand and said loudly, "Why are you here? It's getting dark. We should go back soon."
Sun Shan didn't answer. He just came. Su and Huang were just asking anyway. It was normal for children in the village to come to the vegetable garden to look for adults.
Not far away, there were villagers watering and picking vegetables, and children playing and fighting.
Sun Shan squatted in the vegetable field and pulled weeds. Weeds grew fast in spring, and the flying birds would bring some weed seeds from time to time. After pulling them out, they would grow again in three to five days.
There are Chinese cabbage, lettuce, leeks and celery in the vegetable garden.
Sun Shan doesn't like eating celery because it tastes too bad.
He said to Huang: "Grandma, I want to eat fried eggs with chives."
Huang was picking some cauliflower. When she heard her grandson's words, she said gently, "Okay, I'll pick some and fry them with eggs and add some of the dried shrimps that my aunt brought back."
Sun Shan nodded desperately and said with a smile, "Grandma, add dried shrimps. They are my favorite."
Huang smiled and said, "I added it specially because I knew you like it."
Su, who was standing at the side, agreed: "Mother, I will harvest them. You can pick more vegetable hearts to feed the chickens and pigs. If you don't pick them, they will get old and can't be eaten."
Huang nodded and continued to pick the cabbage. She had planted too much before, and the cabbage was rotten and she couldn't eat it all. After a few days, the cabbage bloomed. When it got old, she could only pick it and feed it to the chickens and pigs.
Everyone was busy for a while, and it was getting dark. They hurriedly carried the wooden barrels and took the vegetables, returning to the Sun family's old house in the afterglow.
As soon as I entered the door, several sisters in the family came back.
The second sister was a regular herder, while the third and fourth sisters followed their friends in the village into the mountains to chop firewood. They put the small trees in the yard to dry, and when they were almost dry, they cut them into sections and collected them to burn slowly.
Guyu came out of the kitchen, took out some green vegetables from the bucket, and found some bamboo shoots. She smiled and said, "Grandma, mother, where are these bamboo shoots?"
Huang smiled and said, "I was lucky today. I dug it up in the bamboo forest in the village."
Sun Shan also likes to eat bamboo shoots. He had already eaten the ones he brought back from his grandfather's house.
Su said, "Third girl, peel the bamboo shoots and soak them in water for two days. You can eat them the day after tomorrow."
Xiaoman picked up the bamboo shoots obediently, squatted on the ground and started peeling them.
After peeling, cut into slices, soak in well water for two days to remove the astringency, then you can eat it.