Every family has its own difficult-to-recite scripture.
The pot of Chrysanthemum Aunt only had some millet porridge, and the porridge was not cooked much. Suddenly there were four more children, making it even less usable.
Chrysanthemum aunt added some water in the pot, simmered on low heat for a while, and then sent half a bowl of porridge to each person first.
"The children eat first, I'll go cook some more porridge." First gave a bowl to his mother-in-law, then it was for the four Liang children, not even leaving any for Xiaohua.
"Thank you, Aunt Chrysanthemum. I've troubled you." Liang Tiantian knew this wasn't the time for politeness and picked up the bowl to feed Ballball congee.
Porridge made from high-quality millet, and a dish of nothing but dried radish.
Xiao Hua's grandmother didn't drink the porridge, but instead pushed the bowl forward a bit.
"I'm not hungry, you eat your fill." The old lady was blind in her eyes, but her ears were not deaf, and they were particularly good at listening. She had also heard about the things outside. Birth, aging, illness, and death are all common human emotions, but this living person suddenly died in an accident, which still made the old people feel a little sad.
"Alas, your mother was such a good person, it's really unfair that good people don't get good rewards." As she grew older, Old Lady Xiaohua loved to ramble on, her cloudy old eyes staring blankly into the distance. She muttered to herself: "I don't even know if your father can come back, heaven have mercy, how are you children going to get through this winter?" As she said this, Old Lady Xiaohua let out another sigh of lamentation.
Liáng Tián had some impression of Little Flower Grandma, she was a bit nagging, but her heart was good. In her impression, this was what a grandma should be like.
"Granny Chen, let's eat first." Liang Tian Tian saw that both of her brothers were holding their rice bowls and not eating, afraid that they would be reminded of sad things, so she quickly handed the rice bowl to Xiaohua. "We all have some, you should eat too." She then handed her own rice bowl in front of her to Xiaohua, "Xiaohua, you eat, I'm not hungry yet."
"Look at your pale face, how can you not be hungry? You eat first, mom is still cooking porridge." Xiaohua is ten years old this year, older than all of them, so she wouldn't snatch.
Liang didn't delay anymore and focused on feeding Ball Ball dinner.
The radish was too hard, and Qiuqiu ate a mouthful and chewed for half a day without making any progress, frowning.
"Can't chew it up, spit it out for sister to eat." Food is especially precious, and there's even less reason to waste it in a peasant household.
The ball seemed a bit hesitant, but still shook his head and swallowed hard.
"Our ball is such a good kid." Xiaohua praised.
The ball seemed very happy and whispered: "Mom said don't waste things."
One sentence made everyone silent again.
The atmosphere in the room was somewhat oppressive, until Aunt Chrysanthemum cooked porridge again, and everyone drank two bowls, which was considered to be about 80% full.
"What are you going to do, with a full house like this?" After finishing breakfast, Chrysanthemum Aunt asked anxiously: "Your mother is gone, your father is not at home, and that grandmother of yours..." Chrysanthemum Aunt stopped herself, clearly very aware of the Liang family's situation.
"Chrysanthemum Aunt, we've divided the family property," said Liang Mantou. "Second Uncle bullied us, and Grandma wouldn't let my mother use a coffin, so we invited the clan elders and divided the property with them."
"Divide the family?" Old Lady Xiaohua frowned in disapproval: "You four children, if you divide the family, how will you live afterwards? Not to mention anything else, just this winter, every household's grain was looted, how will you get by? After finishing speaking, she sighed again, "No matter what, you are all descendants of the Liang family. Even if they bully you a bit, as long as you don't divide the family, they can't just watch you starve to death, right? Listen to grandma's advice, grandma has been through a lot, you should go and apologize, admit your mistakes, and this family will be fine." The old lady thought far ahead, every household needs to have two life-saving silver coins. Just now the four children mentioned dividing the family but didn't mention silver coins at all, it's clear that Liang Wangshi didn't give them any. Those tens of kilograms of grain wanting to get through winter is no different from a fool's dream.
"Granny Chen, we know you're kind-hearted, but my siblings and I don't want to live a life of relying on others either." Liang Tian Tian took a deep breath, puffed out her chest and said: "My siblings and I are not young anymore, we can take care of ourselves."
"Children, you don't know how hard it is to get through the winter in this old wolf's den." Grandma Chen sighed. "Not to mention food, just talk about firewood. Now that the harvest is over, I heard that the Turkic soldiers set fire to the crops they couldn't take away. There's no firewood left, and everyone has to go up the mountain to cut wood. But where can you find firewood on this mountain? The deep mountains have wild beasts, what can you four children do?"
"Listen to your grandmother, go and apologize to your uncle, after all, he is also a half-older generation, you can't let him freeze or starve to death." Old Lady Chen brought up old matters, obviously for the sake of her siblings.
These things Liang Tiantian had never heard of before, and he didn't expect that not only was there a food crisis, but even firewood was scarce. In this era without heating or electricity, thinking about the old broken shed at home made Liang Tiantian's head ache.
But let them brother and sister go back under Liang Wangshi and Liang Tietou's eyelids to live, that's still not worth it.
Although they are now in the same yard, they live their own lives and don't want anything to do with them.
But wanting to get through this winter safely, it seems like I should take preventive measures early on.
After staying for a while at Aunt Chrysanthemum's house, Liang Tian and his sister said goodbye.
Just as they were about to leave, Aunt Chrysanthemum grabbed Liang Tian Tian and stuffed a few eggs into her hands.
Liáng Tián's eyebrows furrowed, even if she was no longer the original Liáng Tián, she knew that the chicken eggs from the Zhuāng household were too precious to eat themselves, they had to be sold for money. The days of Chrysanthemum Aunt's family looked difficult at a glance, how could she ask for them?
"Auntie, I don't want this. You'd better keep it for your own family." Nowadays every household is having a hard time, and eggs are a rare commodity.
"Auntie is giving it to you, just take it. Besides, this isn't even for you, the child is still so young, and there's a long way to go in the future, don't make things hard for the kid." Chrysanthemum Aunt stuffed the egg into her hands without saying another word. "If there's anything difficult, just tell Auntie, if Auntie can help, she'll definitely lend a hand." But at home, it was really too poor, several times Chrysanthemum Aunt had words on the tip of her tongue but swallowed them back down.
Their family was originally poor, and this winter didn't know if they could get through it. If they kept the four children, everyone would starve to death together.
"Thank you, Auntie." Liang Tiantian didn't delay any further, and with the five eggs in hand, he felt a wave of acid rising up in his heart.
This is what a stranger did for his siblings, and that so-called relative... Liang Tian took a deep breath, forget it, forget it, he was much better off than himself in the previous life, just consider them dead.
Liang Tian and his wife left Aunt Chrysanthemum's house, and Chen Nainai let out a sigh on the kang.
"Alas, these children, I don't know if they can make it through this winter."
Chrysanthemum aunt looked at her own family's high corn rice that didn't exceed a hundred or so catties and sighed.
Every family has its own difficult-to-read scripture.
