Niu Xiaodong grabbed a handful of dates from his clothes pocket, "Brother Qiang, this is a wild date, although it is not ripe yet, but the taste is okay." ”

Of course, Niu Xiaoqiang had eaten dates, but he had never eaten wild dates, and he asked curiously, "There are actually date trees on the mountains near us?"

Niu Xiaodong nodded: "Of course there is, but there are not too many of them, after so many years, the three of us have only found two wild jujube trees, one of which has grown quite big, and the wild jujube you eat now is picked from this jujube tree." ”

Niu Xiaoqiang was surprised: "Why haven't I heard you talk about it?"

Niu Huahua immediately interjected: "Xiaodong said that this is an absolute secret, and you can't tell anyone, otherwise someone will come to rob us of our snacks, so not only you, but the whole village is estimated to be only known to the three of us." ”

After Niu Huahua finished speaking, she carefully took out a few bright red wild fruits from her pocket: "Brother Xiaoqiang, this is the snake braincase I picked, the taste is okay, you can taste it." ”

The snake skull is the name of the locals, but it is actually a wild strawberry, which can often be seen in the fields. Niu Xiaoqiang once picked it himself, and although the taste was not very sweet, it was much better than a cicada chrysalis.

He took it and stuffed it into his mouth, "Well, thank you." ”

After eating, the four of them sat under the shade of the tree and chatted and farted, until the sun was setting in the west, and Niu Xiaoqiang stood up: "It's almost time, let's go home." ”

Before going home, Niu Xiaoqiang asked Niu Xiaoyong to fish up the four big silver carp he had left behind. These four fish are about the same size, all about five catties.

According to the previous agreement, if the money from selling fish reaches three hundred, and there is still fish left, then each person will take one home to satisfy their hunger. Since both conditions were met, the four fish were deliberately kept.

After dividing the fish, Niu Xiaoqiang advised: "When I go home later, I will say that we will help the teacher clean up the mud in the fish pond at school, and the teacher will send us the fish in order to thank us, do you remember?"

"Don't worry, we're not going to leak anything. ”

"Alright, let's go home. ”

The four of them sang songs and walked happily through the mountains and forests.

When Niu Xiaoqiang returned home, the family was sitting under the big tree at the door to enjoy the shade. The second sister, the third sister and the fourth sister all came back, and several sisters got together to chat, laughing and trembling when they were happy, like a beautiful landscape.

Seeing Niu Xiaoqiang coming back with the fish, several sisters immediately came up with a look of surprise and asked where the fish came from, and Niu Xiaoqiang covered up the past according to the words prepared in advance.

In order to show off, Niu Xiaoqiang also took the initiative to run into the house and took out the award certificate he got to show the other three unaware sisters. Unexpectedly, the three sisters were not very interested in this matter, so they put Niu Xiaoqiang aside with a perfunctory sentence, and instead discussed how to dispose of this big silver carp weighing more than five catties. After a heated argument, they finally came to an agreement: boil the fish and eat it.

Niu Xiaoqiang looked at the hunger and thirst for this fish in the eyes of several sisters, and then looked at the award certificate in his hand, and said with his lips: "This is the first time I have won an award...... Don't you want to praise you more......"

The sisters didn't have time to talk to Niu Xiaoqiang at all, and after the discussion, a group of people went to the kitchen with the fish like the moon. Niu Xiaoqiang hung his head in frustration, walked to his mother who was pinching vegetables and sat down.

Mother Sun Mei smiled and said: "Our youngest child is really promising, not only won the award, but also came back with such a big fish." ”

After listening to his mother's praise, Niu Xiaoqiang felt that his wounded heart had been comforted a little. He turned his head to look and found that his father was not at home, so he couldn't help but ask, "Mom, where has Dad gone?"

Sun Mei smiled: "He went to your uncle's house, your cousin just added a kid, how can he, who is an uncle, not go to visit." ”

Niu Xiaoqiang's family is very large, there are seven brothers and sisters on his father's side, twenty-three cousins and cousins, and if you add the six children in Niu Xiaoqiang's family, it is twenty-nine.

Mother Sun Mei's family is also very large, there are six brothers and sisters in her generation, and there are nineteen children in the next generation, if you add the six children in their family, it is twenty-five.

The high fertility rate of Lao Niu's family and Lao Sun's family is not an isolated case, and many families in China in this era have given birth to several children. As for what will happen, it is mainly due to the saying "more people are stronger". Since fertility is encouraged, the people naturally have to respond to the call.

"Mom, did Dad borrow money?"

As for borrowing money, he heard from his parents about it at the last dinner. Niu Xiaoqiang always felt unreliable, because he knew what kind of personality his uncle's family was. wanted to help them like their father did back then, but they didn't even enter the door of their own house after they got through the difficulties, as if they were afraid that their poor relatives would drag them back.

Sun Mei snorted: "The main thing is to send love, and borrowing money is just incidental." ”

Niu Xiaoqiang shook his head slightly, he knew that his mother had similar thoughts to himself, and the reason why he said that borrowing money was only incidental, it was just an excuse to comfort himself after failure.

Niu Xiaoqiang said: If I can open my mind earlier, my family will not be so difficult, and I will work hard in the future to strive to run the farm well and greatly improve the economic situation of my family.

"Little brother, did you take out the textbooks I used?"

When Niu Xiaoqiang was secretly sighing, the fourth sister Niu Dongxiang walked out.

Niu Xiaoqiang didn't want to explain things about learning, because as long as he opened the conversation, then the sisters would take the initiative to take on all the next topics, and it would not be over if they didn't quarrel with him. As the saying goes, three women in one play, Niu Xiaoqiang has four sisters, and they can all act in dramas.

He said casually: "Oh, I put away those textbooks of yours, I guess I might be able to use them in the future, so I put them away in advance to avoid being taken to wipe my butt." ”

"Oh, I see, my classmate's sister also wants to borrow my book to study, since you took it, then forget it. ”

Niu Dongxiang stared at Niu Xiaoqiang with a smile when she said this: "Little brother, I heard my eldest sister say that you can memorize words when you are working, do you want to be admitted to college like your sister?"

In Niu Dongxiang's eyes, although this stupid brother seems to have changed his temperament, he can't compare with himself no matter what, so the tone of his voice reveals a sense of ridicule.