Chapter 6

  The door to the east room opened, and Dayong came out yawning, "Mom, sister, you got up so early."

  "Yes, is Grandpa up?" Daniel asked.

  "There's some noise." Dayong buttoned up his cotton jacket and went to the toilet. Then, the sound of leather fpping resounded, and then a naughty boy ran out of the house. Just as he was about to run to the door, he saw his sister sitting by the stove eating. "Sister, give me a bite."

  He leaned over and opened his mouth.

  Daniu put a piece of pork belly into his mouth with chopsticks. Then she quickly buttoned up his clothes while he was about to run away.

  "Hurry up, I can't hold it anymore." Dazhi said vaguely while chewing.

  "Don't pee in the house, Huazi," Ma Hongmei warned.

  She finished her meal in a few quick bites, wiped her mouth, and went to the east room. Grandpa had indeed woken up and was sitting on the kang in his cotton-padded jacket.

  "Did you sleep well st night, Grandpa?" The Daniu sat on the edge of the kang with one leg sideways, picked up the tobacco basket, filled the long pipe with tobacco leaves for grandpa, and handed it to him. The old man put the pipe in his mouth, and the daniu struck a match in her hand and then lit it.

  After traveling here for seventeen years, she has become accustomed to the customs here. She used to hate the smell of tobacco, which always made her feel choked, but now she can tell from a distance where the tobacco is produced by the burning firewood outside and the smoking inside. Isn't it good?

  The old man took two puffs of his pipe and squinted his eyes. "I don't know why I suddenly dreamed about your grandma st night."

  Daniel listened without saying a word.

  "Your grandma seemed to want to tell me something. I feel uneasy." Daniu thought for a moment and said,

  "Maybe brother broke his leg yesterday, and it scared you?"

  "How could that be possible?" The old man said a little unconvinced, "I, your grandpa, have seen everything. How could I be scared by such a small thing?"

  After saying that, he looked at his granddaughter's dark eyes and lowered his head to puff on his pipe.

  Daniu thought for a moment and said, "Here, I'll hire a car to fetch fourth grandpa and let him calcute it for you."

  "What are you talking about? You are inviting your Fourth Master to come over to eat meat. What is there to calcute? We don't believe in feudal superstitions," said the old man.

  "Yeah, yes, I'll go pick up fourth grandpa to eat meat." The girl smiled and saw that it was already dawn outside, and the snow had stopped falling.

  After giving Dayong some instructions, Daniu put on her fur coat, got in the car, and went out.

  Her grandpa had six brothers. He was the eldest. Her second and fourth grandpas were his brothers from the same mother. Her third, fifth, and sixth grandpas were children of concubines. However, her grandpa had been in charge of the family for a long time, and the brothers had a very good retionship. When the family was divided a few years ago, her grandpa sold the family property, and his brothers did not hesitate to support him by selling their houses and nd.

  Now her third and sixth grandpas are in the vilge, her fourth grandpa is in the town, and her grandpa uncle went to Harbin and joined the Railway Bureau. He only came back during the Chinese New Year. The concubine mother of her fifth grandpa is still alive and lives with him in the county. He was a police officer in the county in his early years and retired st year and let his youngest son take over.

  Her fourth grandpa lives in the town. Her great-grandpa had a younger brother who had been married for more than ten years but had no children. So they set their eyes on her fourth grandpa. The Ma family recognized him as a retive, and the retionship between the brothers and sisters was good. Finally, her great-grandma agreed to let them adopt her fourth grandpa, but it was only in name. The retionship between them did not change. Later, the fourth uncle managed a shop in the town.

  In recent years, the shop has been taken by the state. Her fourth grandfather has only one son in his family. Now his son and daughter-in-w work in the town’s supply and marketing cooperative, and his eldest grandson works in the town’s grain station. They all eat public grain.

  It took more than half an hour to drive the carriage to the town. It was not far, as she needed to go around the mountain ridge. There was only one street in the town, running from west to east. The courtyards in the town were all built close to the road. On the third and ninth day of every month, a big market is set up on the street, and it just so happened that today was a big market day.

  Now the city doesn't allow private sales, but they are fine here. They can sell some of their own things at the market, such as eggs saved at home, embroidered insoles, etc. There is also a department store in the town, and every time there is a market, they will also release some goods that do not require tickets, mostly handmade products or something like that.

  She drove to Fourth Grandpa's house. Originally, the front door of Fourth Grandpa's house was a store, but now there is no business. Every time there is a big market, he sits at the door and watches the fun.

  "Fourth Grandpa, you're out so early; aren't you cold?" The car parked directly at the door, where a little old man was sitting on a chair next to a small stove that was lit and a rge tin kettle was pced on it.

  "Oh, our eldest granddaughter is here. Come into the house and warm up."

  Daniu girl was the oldest girl in the granddaughter's generation. Several elderly people treated her like their own granddaughter, or even better.

  "I'm not cold. My grandpa asked me to take you to eat meat. I hunted a wild boar yesterday." The big girl said as she took two pieces of meat weighing more than ten pounds.

  Fourth Grandpa took it and went into the house and came out with a rge teacup. Then he took a rge tin kettle and poured half a cup of hot water into it. The water suddenly turned light brown.

  "Here, I specially saved this for you. I calcuted that you would be able to come in the next two days. This is some good stuff your uncle got, chocote-fvored malted milk." The little old man smiled.

  Daniu took it and said, "Then I'd like to taste it and see what this chocote-fvored malted milk tastes like." It was still a little hot, but she could take a small sip in her mouth. "Oh, it tastes really good."

  "Right?, I saved it for you. Take it home and drink it slowly."

  "No, I haven't finished the milk powder that Fourth Grandpa brought me st time." This stuff is very precious now, and she was reluctant to drink it. Tianxiang's wife from her Third Grandpa's family was about to give birth, and she wanted to keep it and send it to her when the child is born. "Save this for Xiaoxiang and the others to drink."

  "They have their; you don't need to save it for them." These were all gifts from his sons and daughters-in-w. His grandchildren naturally got theirs from their parents, so they didn't need him to worry about them. It's strange to say that he was proud of this granddaughter among his brothers' more than 20 grandchildren. This child is so considerate and not like his three granddaughters are not like this.

  Daniu felt a little embarrassed and didn't say much. As long as the fourth grandfather is happy, it's fine.

  After drinking malted milk, "Are the others not home with Fourth Grandpa?" She was referring to the girls.

  "They went to the department store. Your uncle and your aunt said there was some defective cloth that didn't require a ticket today, and people are rushing to buy it so they won't come back for a while. The people from to the south came to dance the Yangko today, and your sisters must have gone to watch the fun."

  The girl thought for a moment and said, "My brother broke his leg yesterday."

  "How is he?"

  "It's nothing serious. Sixth Granpa straightened his bones. He said it will take a hundred days for a broken bone to heal. He just needs to take care of it."

  "That's fine then; your sixth grandpa skills are good."

  "My grandpa said this morning that he dreamed about my grandma. I think he's a little bit upset, so I guess he wants you to take a look."

  "What is thereto look? I am so old now." The Fourth Master said, shaking his head.

  Daniu said nothing after that: "The fourth grandpa, I'm going to the department store to buy some things. Wait for me for a while, and we'll leave when I come back."

  "Okay, you go ahead."

  Her fourth grandfather was adopted out that year and learned some things from his great uncle. He was quite knowledgeable about the Book of Changes. In the early years, many people asked him to tell fortunes, and he was accurate in some of his predictions. However, feudal superstition was no longer advocated ter, and he always felt that the ck of offspring in the family was reted to this, so he stopped doing it.

  Before, he thought that Daniu was smart and could learn things quickly, so he wanted to teach her, but she didn't agree and couldn't say anything. Daniu felt that if she learned those things, something bad might happen.

  Of course her grandpa didn't agree. His granddaughter was almost going crazy due to mental problems, so how could she learn those things? What's more, the control over these things was a bit strict now.

  Daniu had also forgotten that today was market day; luckily she still had some tickets with her.

  The department store was not far away. It is the only two-story building in the town. As soon as you enter the door, you will see a long wooden counter. Now that the store has just opened, there are quite a few people. Daniu immediately saw that the cloth counter was very busy. A middle-aged woman was standing on a high stool and shouting, "Don't push, don't push. If you push again, I will not cut it for you."

  She shouted, but her hands were cutting it off skillfully—a piece of cloth was cut off.

  Daniu also walked over, and the woman saw her with her sharp eyes. "When did Daniu come?"

  "I just arrived. Aunt Jiu, is this the cloth we don't need cloth coupons to bye?"

  The cloth was defective, with the dark blue cloth occasionally having different shades, and the edges of the cloth were uneven."Yes."

  Nine Aunt winked at her and said, "These are all that are left."

  Daniu nodded and said, "I don't want to buy it. I want to buy cotton." Then she went to the cotton counter nearby.

  "Daniu, you want to buy cotton? This is newly arrived cotton. I heard it came from Xinjiang. Look how noisy it is." The person who spoke was an aunt in her forties. Daniu didn't know her name, but she had seen her before when she came here. She knew she was a retive of her ninth aunt, and they would greet each other when they met.

  It's pretty good. "How much?"

  "Three dolrs, and and half a pound worth of ticked."

  "So expensive." Daniu looked at the cotton next to her. It was not as good as this one, and it was yellow. But cotton was expensive at this time. At this time, a pound of rice was only 1.4 cents. Fortunately, cotton did not need to be bought every year.

  "This one is 2.2 yuan and one pound worth of ticked. I'm saying this because we know each other, but the first one is better. Although it's a bit more expensive, you can save on tickets."

  The saleswoman whispered, "This is the new batch. When the next batch comes, it will definitely not be cheaper."

  Daniu calcuted and thought it was okay: "Give me five pounds, no, six pounds."

  She happened to have three pounds worth of cotton tickets in her hand.

  After buying cotton, her ninth aunt's cloth was sold out, and the crowd dispersed. Daniu walked over and said, "Aunt Jiu (jiu = nine)."

  "Is grandpa doing well?" Aunt Jiu asked with a smile.

  "Everything is fine. My grandpa asked me to bring Fourth Grandpa over to eat meat and wants him to stay over for a few days," said daniu.

  "Okay." Aunt Jiu handed her a cloth bag neatly, "Take it back and make some clothes."

  Daniu accepted it, thinking it was inevitable, so she didn't refuse. "Aunt Jiu, please buy me two more sets of floral fabrics. Xiao Cui and Xiao Mei haven't worn new clothes for two years. I want to make them two sets of cotton-padded jackets."

  "Okay, there are three colors, which do you like."　One was red with white flowers, one was big red cloth with big flowers, and the other was blue with white flowers.

  After thinking for a while she said, "Aunt, please buy me two of these, enough to make cotton-padded jackets for both of them. And one of this blue ones, according to my mother's body shape."

  She took out the cloth coupons and money, which she took half a year to save.　"Why don't you make one yourself if the tickets are not enough? I'll fill some for you."

  "I don't need it. What I made st year can be worn again this year." She has no shortage of winter clothes. She always goes into the mountains and has two sets of fur coats.

  Her aunt didn't say anything else. She cut off a piece of cloth and tied it up with a rope for her.

  After talking to Aunt Jiu for a few more words, someone came to buy cloth, so she said goodbye and left. She bought two pounds of candy and two pounds of cake at the next counter. After leaving the department store, she walked around the street and saw someone selling silk headbands. They were new styles, red, yellow, blue, and purple with two circles of gold edges. They were ten cents each, which was not cheap.

  Daniu counted and bought twelve. It was for six people, including two sisters in her family, three sisters in the fourth grandpa's family, and one sister in the third grandpa's family.

  Carrying the things back to the fourth grandfather's house, the sisters ( cousin) all came back and chattered when they saw her. After a while, Daniu interrupted and said, "Didn't you go to watch the Yangko dance?"

  "There are too many people. Sister, is this for us? It's so beautiful."

  The youngest Ma Shuxiang saw the headbands sticking out of the cotton bag, pulled one out directly, and then looked at it with shining eyes.

  "Well, two pairs per person; pick your own. A pair has the same color; you can take turns wearing them." That means red, yellow, and purple.

  The three sisters directly chose three colors each.

  "I'm going to take Fourth Grandpa home to eat meat ter. Do you want to come?"

  "I want to go, but I have to go to school tomorrow."

  The speaker was Ma Shuyun, the third child in the family.

  "Then come. I will send you back in the afternoon." It's not far anyway. "Xiao Fen sould come too. You can bring some dishes back in the afternoon so you wouldn't have to cook at home."

  Ma Shufen is two months younger than her and has a very gentle personality. She usually does all the housework at Fourth Grandpa's house, so Uncle Nine and Aunt Nine can always have a hot meal when they come back from work.

  "Okay." Ma Shufen nodded and agreed, "I have to tell my mom."

  Several people put on their clothes, and Daniu spread a mattress on the car and asked Fourth Grandpa to get in. Several vain girls had already put on their headbands. Daniu took a look and adjusted them with her hands, pulling out a flower from the headband, which was quite beautiful.

  They took a detour to the department store to say hello to Aunt Jiu, and then walked back. On the way, they met a few people who were trying to hitchhike. In this era, people were very close to each other. When they chat with each other, they can always find that they are reted. Otherwise, you don’t know me, but I know you. Once you say whose’s child you are, then we know each other.

  Although Daniu never talked with them, she was "familiar" with the people around her. She didn't need to remember them deliberately. Her brain seems to cssify them by itself. The people she has met, the information she has gathered, and the retionships between them are automatically sorted.

  Just like there were four new faces at the market today, but two of them were from Changlong Lake. The one talking to them was Xiao Liuzi from the mill on the street. Judging from their faces, the three of them should be brothers. From her memory, Xiao Liuzi's family was also from Changlong Lake. The remaining two people, one was wearing a woolen coat, and he should be working for the county. That kind of woolen material was imported by the county st year. There was only that batch, and ordinary people couldn't buy it.

  Daniu couldn't help but frown at the st one. She looked at the man from a distance and saw that he was not a local from his clothes. As she walked by, she didn't think about it. The image memory in her mind automatically archived his face.

  Styvetass