Raising Babies in the 70s - Chapter 109

    In 1976, on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, Qin Rou took her two cubs to her sister’s house in Dajiao Village.

    Dragon rises on the second day of February, Xuanyuan is born on the third month of March. This is a big day. Maybe other people are not sensitive enough to this day, but every year on March 3rd, the neighboring provinces of Guangdong Province usually have a small holiday ranging from three days to seven days, which is enough to show how important this day is. Come on.

    As for why it can be put on so many days, it is because the March 3 holiday is often combined with the Qingming holiday. If companies and schools are more conscientious, the March 3 holiday plus the Qingming holiday and no overtime on weekends, You can make up a seven-day happy holiday.

    Qin Rou was also very envious when she watched the staff from the next province show a long holiday.

    Of course, there is no holiday on March 3rd now, but there will be celebration activities in the village that are accustomed to, singing duet, drinking rice wine, dancing bamboo pole dance… There are many Li people in the village who sent Qin to Qin before. Aunt Fu of Rou Passion Fruit Miao is from the Li nationality, and many people of the Li nationality have the surname Fu.

    In the past, Qin Rou met a classmate from Qiongzhou Island. Her surname is also Fu. Every time she introduces herself, it is very interesting. What is your surname? My surname character (surname character).

    It is not only the Li people who celebrate the third day of the third month. In Rou Qin’s impression, the Zhuang, Yao, and Miao nationalities, or in other words, most ethnic minorities in the southwest will celebrate the third day of the third month, which is more traditional important holiday.

    As girls in the mountains, Qin Rou and Qin Mian used to listen to folk songs on March 3rd, so March 3rd can also be called a folk song festival.

    “Auntie!”

    Zhouzhou and Dumplings ran into my aunt’s house and immediately shouted happily.

    The busy Qin Mian raised her head and smiled at Qin Rou, “Amei, have you brought the child here?”

    “Come on, hurry up, I have boiled mustard eggs here, you and your child will eat one quickly.”

    “I picked fresh mugwort early and made mugwort cake. You and your two children can eat some.”

    Qin Rou brought her children over to eat today. She doesn’t like to eat boiled eggs with mustard greens, but she likes to eat mugwort cakes. Crushed, add glutinous rice flour and knead it into a ball, wrap it with crushed peanuts, crushed sesame seeds and sugar to make it like a glutinous rice cake. The last soul is to steam it on the grapefruit leaves. The steamed glutinous rice cakes from the grapefruit leaves are very fragrant.

     “Just out of the pot, be careful with scalding.”

    Qin Rou and the children ate eggs separately, each holding a blue glutinous rice cake, because there are pomelo leaves under the cushion, you can hold both sides of the pomelo leaves so as not to burn your hands, and blow them up.

    “Eat the boat and dumplings slowly.”

    “Mom, it smells so good.”

    “Scent? The fragrance of grapefruit leaves.”

    Qin Rou lowered her head and sniffed it with her nose, she lowered her head and blew a sigh of relief, took a bite on the glutinous rice cake in her hand, and entered the blue glutinous rice skin, soft and sticky, with a little Slightly bitter, after biting the skin, the sugar filling inside is revealed. The sugar juice is wrapped in crushed sesame seeds and peanuts, and it is sweet and fragrant.

      Not greasy, bitter and sweet, the grapefruit leaves are fragrant and delicious.

    Although this kind of sugar glutinous rice cake is delicious, you can’t eat more, because after eating one, you will feel tired.

    The two children, Zhouzhou and Dumplings, also like to eat, and they eat Baba.

    “Dumplings, snacks, sugar fillings are coming out.”

    Little Dumpling licked his little hand, sweet, he smiled at his mother.

    “Sweet!”

    “Sweet?” Qin Rou smiled and pinched the little faces of the two children. Today, eating egg glutinous rice cakes is just to join in the fun. Her sister Qin Mian likes to join in tradition. On the third day of the month, eating mustard eggs and mugwort glutinous rice cakes is called “beating the snake’s eye?”

    This is true in the mountainous areas of the southwest where there are many snakes.

    This kind of good moral, must bring children to eat.

    “I also cooked five-color rice, how about we also burn bamboo rice at noon?”

    “Okay, sister, I’m going to cook bamboo rice. I brought some sausages, beans and radishes today.” Bamboo rice is Qin Rou’s favorite. Fragrant, bamboo tube rice is the same as claypot rice, with the addition of soul bacon.

    Five-colored rice is also a tradition on March 3rd, but the color of the five-color rice is beautiful, but it is not particularly delicious. In the past, on March 3rd, there would be Zhuang friends around to give Qin Rou five-color rice , they have the habit of cooking five-color rice.

    Modern cooking of five-color rice in the city will bring out strange dangers, such as accidentally adding cleaning alkali as edible alkali to the water in which the rice is soaked, and eating it is easy… Very dangerous behavior.

    “No radishes, no radishes.” The two little brats discovered the word “radish” and immediately became noisy.

    “Okay, your bamboo rice doesn’t add radish.”

    Qin Mian looked at her sister and two little nephews and smiled, she pushed the hair behind her ears, and said softly: “Amy, the two children will soon be four years old, Do you want to consider giving birth to a younger sister for Zhouzhou and Dumpling?”

    Zhou Zhou and Dumpling looked up at the adults and asked curiously, “Sister?”

    “Sister, if you don’t give birth yourself, let me give birth.” Qin Rou has not thought about having a second child for the time being. Zhouzhou and Dumpling are still young, and it will be more than eight years. , family planning should be officially implemented.

    “I already have an eldest daughter, Juanjuan. You don’t have a daughter yet. Don’t you want to give birth to a sister for your two children?”

    “Zhou Zhou and Xiao Dumpling, do you want a sister?”

    “Sister?”

    “Jump Nian Nian is also my sister…”

    Qin Rou said to her sister, “Tiaotiao and Niannian are children of the family home, a little younger than them.”

    “My mother’s younger sister is a real younger sister, Amei, look, it would be great if you had a beautiful little sister now, as soon as she was born, two older brothers spoiled her, our boat Zhou and Dumpling will definitely be able to take good care of my sister…”

    “Is that so? Xiaozhouzhou? Small dumplings?”

    Zhou Zhou and Dumpling stumbled and said “Mmmm” twice.

    Qin Rou smiled, thinking to herself, what is it? These two stupid cubs, especially the little dumplings, are both little brothers who want to be spoiled by their elder brothers, and they also want a younger sister.

    Qin Mian tempted: “After you have a younger sister, Xiao Dumpling will be your elder brother.”

    “嘚嘚?” Little Dumpling’s eyes lit up, and then subconsciously said: “I am Zhouzhou!”

    “Whether you are a boat or not, you can be a brother…”

    Qin Rou stopped and said, “Sister, don’t tease them. What are you talking about, sister, you’re busy and don’t give birth.”

    At this moment, a loud voice suddenly came from outside: “Little aunt, little aunt!! We’re back!”

    Children Xia Mingxi came to play at his good brother Chen Jingyi’s house yesterday. Today, the village is especially lively on March 3rd. These children are about to go crazy.

    Xia Mingxi and Chen Jingyi walked into the house one after the other. The two children are now nine years old. Xia Mingxi is taller, Chen Jingyi is thinner and has dark hair. The watermelon head is no longer cut, and there are neat black shattered hair on his head, and the shattered hair around his ears is against his handsome and gentle face.

    “Auntie.” Chen Jingyi, who was holding the picture album, saw Qin Rou and smiled softly.

    “Jing Yi, hurry up, come eat eggs with Xiao Ming.”

    “Auntie, why do you call me Xiaoming?!”

    “We’ve eaten.”

    Although Chen Jingyi is not very talkative in front of outsiders, he is usually quiet and likes to paint in the corner, but in front of his family, he can laugh and speak softly .

    Chen Jingyi is now learning painting with his grandfather, Mr. Chen.

    It’s just that Mr. Chen dislikes him very much: “This child has no talent for painting.”

    “Why don’t you have the talent for painting?”

    “The drawn thing is too dead and has no aura.”

    Qin Rou and Qin Mian and sisters are not critical artists, but Qin Rou thinks that Chen Jingyi’s paintings are very beautiful. Compared with animals such as flowers and birds, Chen Jingyi prefers to paint various buildings.

    Chen Jingyi went to Yecheng last year, and after returning, he painted a lot of Yecheng buildings, which are very beautiful.

    The Coconut City on Qiongzhou Island has many exotic buildings built by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. For a period of time, Chen Jingyi painted many such architectural paintings. He liked it so much that he was not allowed to paint, but Chen Jingyi still liked to paint architecture.

    Chen Jingyi was silent and seldom, but he was as stubborn as his father. He wouldn’t stop painting because his grandfather said he couldn’t paint, but still painted his favorite Nanyang Building.

    He also gave Qin Rou a painting.

    “Do you like this kind of building?” Qin Rou asked him with a smile.

    Chen Jingyi nodded, “I like it, but grandpa doesn’t paint it.”

    “If you want to paint, then paint, Jing Yi, do you want to try painting your favorite building? You can design it yourself and add your own ideas to it…”

    Qin Rou encouraged him that there is nothing wrong with drawing architecture. Chen Jingyi likes houses with different styles. If he is interested in these buildings, maybe he will train him and become an architect in the future.

    Chen Jingyi agreed to her.

    “Auntie, I’ll go get a painting to show you.”

    Qin Rou nodded, Chen Jingyi went to the room to get the painting, Xia Mingxi wiped the sweat from his face and shouted: “I want to drink coconut, I just danced outside for a long time, but I am not exhausted. I, let Jing Yi dance, but he won’t come…”

    “They were dancing the pole dance outside just now.”

    “Auntie, do you want to dance?”

    “Don’t go, let’s play, look at your sweat, wipe off your body, are you wet? Go and change your clothes…”

    “No need, I’ll go out to play later, it’ll dry in the sun.”

    That’s not the smell of sweat.

    Chen Jingyi showed the painting to Qin Rou, Qin Rou took a closer look, it was a beautiful four-storey building with clear lines, very similar to a Western-style building, she asked him with a smile: “Is there any Haven’t thought about what the inside of the house is like?”

    Chen Jingyi froze for a moment, then said, “I’ll think about it later.”

    “Well, think about it.”

    Qin Rou patted his shoulder.

    There will be another person coming outside, it’s Aunt Fu, she is also carrying a big bamboo basket in her hand, she smiles when she sees Qin Rou: “Sister Rou is here, come, come and taste Try the wedding cake made by my family, my youngest daughter is going to get married, come and taste it, eat the wedding cake, and the two children will also taste it.”

    I heard that the youngest daughter of Aunt Fu’s family was getting married, so Qin Rou sisters both congratulated her.

    Aunt Fu smiled brightly and greeted: “On such a good day, don’t be bored at home, come out and play together.”

    The aunt drove them all out like a pig. At this moment, the village was full of lively laughter, bamboo pole dances, bamboo pole dances, and antiphonal songs. Men and women chat and laugh.

    March 3rd is also Valentine’s Day.

    They walked to the square in the village, a circle of people were dancing around a couple of men and women, Aunt Fu pointed to the woman standing in the middle, and introduced with a smile:

    “That’s my daughter, Meng Lan.”

    Meng Lan is a girl born and raised in the village, her skin is a little dark, but her facial features are beautiful and her eyes are shining. Shy affection.

    There was a man standing beside her. The man was of medium build and slightly overbearing. He was not out of place, nor was he ugly. He was wearing black pants and a white shirt. This man, Qin Rou, had met before. However, it was an educated youth in the village, called Zhou Yuanfang.

    Before this Zhou Yuanfang went to her sister and brother-in-law’s house with Wang Zhiqing to borrow books. Compared with Wang Zhiqing, who is silent and loves to read books, Zhou Yuanfang has a lively and funny temperament, can tell jokes, and is very attractive to girls like.

    Aunt Fu said that the person her daughter would marry should be him.

    “His name is Zhou Yuanfang, an educated youth from outside, I didn’t want Menglan to marry someone outside, but my daughter likes it, we can’t do anything about it…”

    “Come on, you can go and dance too.”

    “We won’t.”

    “Follow the team.”

    Aunt Fu pulled them and the children to join the team, circled around the men and women in the middle, and sang a few words from time to time, and finally everyone put two beautiful garlands around Menglan and Zhou Yuanfang’s neck.

    “Menglan, come, hug these two children.” Aunt Fu pulled Zhouzhou and dumplings up, these are the two babies she had been eyeing for a long time, let her daughter take advantage of this moment Hug, after getting married, you can have this pair of big fat boys.

    Qin Rou is already familiar with this kind of thing, so Zhouzhou and Dumpling will be obedient to be the little flower girls for a while.

    “Look how smart and nimble these two kids are.”

    “Aunt Fu, you are lucky, hug your grandson.”

    …

    After a group of people laughing and laughing, they went to the wooden bridge together. There is a wooden bridge made of rope and planks in the village. This kind of bridge is very swaying. After a while, the whole bridge will sway along with it.

    When a group of people stood on the wooden bridge and shook vigorously, it was even more swaying.

    Children especially like to jump on this bridge, Qin Rou took Zhouzhou and dumplings up, and was immediately shaken by the rope, Zhouzhou and dumplings hugged mother’s legs and followed the people around Together with the shaking bridge, “Ah ah ah…”

    Afraid that the two of them would be injured, Qin Rou didn’t take them to play more on the bridge, and went back to her sister and brother-in-law’s house to cook sticky rice.

    “Mom, I want to drink water.” After playing outside for a while, both children were thirsty.

    “Water or coconut.”

    “A coconut, a coconut…”

    Qin Rou opened a coconut for each of the two children, and Qin Mian came back. Behind her was a tall and thin man, who was as thin as a hemp pole and carried a lot of firewood.

    “Let it go, thank you, Ash.”

    The man put down the firewood, didn’t speak, turned around and left, before leaving, he saw Qin Rou, his eyes froze for a moment, but he didn’t stay any longer, he lowered his head and walked back.

    Qin Rou saw his face, there was a lot of stubble on the chin, and the eyebrows were very thick. Because of the too many hairs, the original face could not be seen.

    “Sister, who is he?” Qin Rou asked curiously.

    “He, his name is Ashi, and their family is also pitiful. Of course, you can’t say that outside—” Qin Mian came over to talk to Qin Rou in a soft voice, “His family is not good. Great, he was also sent here. It is said that his family used to be very wealthy and owned a lot of land… Later, his uncle received news and ran away with his concubine and other children, leaving their family on the island. His father After he died, the young concubine was also driven to remarry, and now there are only his grandmother and a mute sister left in his family. The family is very pitiful, and his sister’s children are studying at your brother-in-law’s.”

    “Before his grandmother fell ill on the road, just happened to be discovered by your brother-in-law and father and son, sent to the hospital, and he was very grateful to our family…”

    “Anyway, the composition of our family is the same, and it’s nothing to interact with their family…”

    Speaking of this, Qin Mian pulled Qin Rou to a room on the first floor, removed the cabinet, and dug out a wooden box from the bottom, Qin Rou turned around and avoided: “Sister, you too It’s too insignificant.”

    How to start digging treasures in front of her.

    “You’re not an outsider.”

    Qin Mian handed the box to Qin Rou. As soon as Qin Rou opened it, she was stunned because there were two large and round golden pearls inside.

    A perfectly round golden pearl, red gold, with a diameter of about 12 to 15 mm, although it is old, the gloss is still very high, with a slight flaw visible to the naked eye, Another flaw is minimal.

    “Amy, if you like it, you can take it. Our house is not suitable for these things.”

    “Our family didn’t want it, but he insisted that your brother-in-law accept it… A Shi’s family used to cultivate and sell pearls.”

    Qin Rou closed the lid, “Sister, you can take it as it was given to you.”

    “Okay, then bury it here.” Anyway, this kind of thing can’t be shown to others, it looks good, but it’s useless.

    After returning from her sister’s house, Qin Rou has been thinking about pearls. She is not thinking about the two South Sea gold pearls, but thinking about the possibility of raising pearls in two or three years. .

    She is now in a great location.

    No woman can refuse jewelry, even if it is not suitable to wear when going to work, when you go home, you must look good in front of the mirror, and even go out on holidays.

    In the past, Qin Rou was very addicted to pearl jewelry for a period of time, and she was very familiar with all kinds of pearls. She also turned over many historical materials on pearl cultivation, studied and tried pearl cultivation, and collected rent as a house with several houses. A small relocated household, she still has a little treasury for her small hobby.

    All kinds of pearl necklaces, pearl bracelets, pearl ear hooks, earrings, earrings, earrings… She has collected a lot, and she also likes to DIY by herself, compared to black Tahitian pearls and golden South Seas Jinzhu, the young Qin Rou prefers to wear white or pink pearls. Freshwater pearls and seawater pearls have their own beauty.

    Qin Rou touched her earlobe. After arriving in the 1970s, she had not worn jewelry for many years.

    In a few years, all kinds of beautiful red dresses on the street will become popular, and all kinds of jewelry necklaces will return to everyone’s vision.