Chapter 599: Memories 2

(24)

I found that I was more and more immersed in memories, which would not have happened before the age of 40, or maybe I had no time to reminisce before the earthquake, and I would rather watch Korean dramas than think about the past.

Since Liancai came to my dream, I suddenly realized that maybe I will regret that I am always writing other people's stories, rarely using the first person, and in the future, future generations will really look for my shadow in those novels I write in the voice of a man, right?

The words "Badi Town, Beichuan County" behind the Liancai photo are still very clear, but that place is unrecognizable.

I remembered that there has always been a celery field outside the west gate of the university, the kind of celery with white poles, fried minced beef is delicious, and my mother called that dish "rotten knife beef". The celery is minced and the beef is minced, and the two are blended together, and as long as the salt enhances the flavor, it is very delicious.

I haven't seen that kind of celery in 15 years. The green and fatty celery I eat now has no taste, and I don't think it will have the effect of celery as stated in the Compendium of Materia Medica.

I remember that I often carried a red plastic stool to sit on the ridge of the celery field and read a book, thinking that in the future, I would not eat school food, but only plants, not animals. I didn't expect that I would eat school food for more than ten years in the future.

At that time, our homeroom teacher, Mr. Chen, told me that we should focus on our homework and get into a better university, instead of choosing my career so early. For this reason, she also wrote a letter to my parents, asking them not to disclose the family's financial situation to me, which would affect my studies.

Teacher Chen Lingli's handwriting is very beautiful, and she said that I am very talented and she is the most valued student in this class. But Mr. Chen's reminder was too late, and my parents often quarreled over money, which not only affected my physical, mental, and academic studies, but also was a big problem that affected my life.

My father spent his life trying to get the students who were not well clothed and hungry to live in the brick classrooms. Not only did he not get a penny back, but he also asked his mother to raise chickens and pigs to entertain the officials who had the funds for education. At that time, the mountain people also sold wild game such as bear bile and bear's paw, Ganoderma lucidum, and cordyceps, and my father bought them and gave them to the officials, asking them to allocate funds for building houses earlier.

And these white slips were paid off with all my salary, bonuses, manuscript fees and red envelopes for four years after I worked.

My mother, in fact, always forced me to clean the house so that the new teachers could come to my house freely to eat, and the parents of the rural students would bring fresh vegetables, and she would fill their satchels with cooking oil, noodles, and rice.

I asked my mother if she remembered that the wrinkled peasant woman had taken six corn cobs, and you asked me to rub two basins of rice before filling people's satchels.

Mom said, "Really, I still wonder how their bags fit so well."

My son asked: How many catties of rice were given?

Mom replied: Let's say less there are 2 or 30 pounds, your mother is so stupid, and she still goes to rub the third pot, and people don't want to stop it.