Mingbei stayed at the educated youth point for 20 days in a row. Seeing that the Chinese New Year would be more than half a month away, the educated youth point gave them more than a month's leave and let them return to the educated youth point on the 20th day of the first lunar month. Mingbei packed up his belongings, carried the quilt on his back, and walked home. Some educated youths had already inquired about the day off at home, and they rode bicycles to pick them up early in the morning.

Mingbei knew that the family was busy at this time, so he didn't deliver letters to the house, and walked forward with his head sullen. After walking three miles away, he suddenly heard the bicycle bell of "Ding Lingling". Mingbei just thought he was blocking the road, and moved to the side without even raising his head and continued to walk forward.

Suddenly a familiar voice sounded in my ears: "Mingbei, why are you walking with your head down? I don't know how to look at people?"

Ming Bei suddenly raised his head and looked at Ming Dong who was pushing a bicycle and smiling at him. His eyes turned red, he threw the bedding on the snow, rushed over and hugged Ming Dong without letting go.

Ming Dong reluctantly patted his little brother who was taller than himself, and he couldn't help crying and laughing: "Why are you still crying? Do you think you are wronged by no one at home?"

"No." Ming Bei wiped his tears and moved towards Ming Dong Yile, showing his big white teeth: "I haven't seen Big Brother get excited for too long. I miss you so much."

"Oh, I haven't seen it for a while and it's numb." Ming Dong laughed: "Okay, if you have something to say when you go home, quickly pick up the bedding, it should get wet in a while."

Ming Bei let out a "hey" and hurriedly put the quilt on his back, while Ming Dong hung other things on the handlebars. Because there were too many bits and pieces, Mingdong was afraid that Mingbei would fall when he got into the car, so he deliberately sat up first, and then rode his bicycle home when Mingbei was seated.

In winter, the wind was blowing and the snow was blowing. The two of them covered their faces tightly with scarves. No one said a word along the way. When he got home, Mingbei put his quilt on the kang of the Westinghouse and baked it. Osmanthus saw that there was a lot of snow on it and quickly stopped him: "Don't bake it first, I'll take it apart and wash it for you later, and then bake it."

Mingbei grinned and said, "It's okay, it's only been built for twenty days, and it's not dirty."

"You can pull it down. There are so many of you on a kang, and even if you smoke it, it will stink. Okay, you can go and talk to your brother. Leave the quilt on it." Osmanthus picked up the quilt and put it on the tip of the kang, ready to eat Wash after lunch.

This was the first time Mingbei went to the educated youth station to go home. Wang Sufen remembered what Mrs. Li said. She was afraid that she would hear Mingbei's hard work, so she simply cooked in the kitchen without even asking a question. Mrs. Li, Ming Dong, Ming Bei, and Zhen Zhen were sitting on the kang in the east room, talking about the youth point.

Mingdong scratched his head: "Actually, there's nothing to do, just chop down trees and carry wood all day long, which is different from dragging firewood at home. There are regulations for the thickness of the wood to carry, and it is not easy to go down the mountain. Go, I could only carry one at a time at the beginning. If I couldn’t complete the task for a few days, I carried two together. Although I couldn’t stand it at first, my arm hurt for several days, but I have almost gotten used to it in the past few days. "

Ming Dong frowned slightly: "Do you have to carry it on your shoulders? Why don't you use a raft to drag it down?"

Zhen Zhen added: "It's fine to tie the wood together with hemp rope and drag it down."

Mingnan was stunned for a moment: "At that time, it was said that we were to carry it, and there was no hemp rope. Besides, the road down the mountain was curved. This kind of wood is two or three meters long, so it is not easy to drag."

Mingdong looked at him and didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Then you can carry it down the mountain and drag it on the flat ground. Such thick snow will save you trouble. When the weather is warm and the snow melts, you can't even drag it if you want to."

Only then did Ming Nan realize, he smiled stupidly: "Big brother is still smart, why didn't I think of that." He looked at Zhen Zhen laughing back and forth, and quickly added: "It's not just me, we are young people. No one thought about it, I didn’t go home from the last holiday, and those who went home all brought back biscuits, meat sauce, pickles, etc., and none of them brought hemp rope.”

Mingdong nodded: "Well, it's the same as you, it's just that you have a good eye."

Mrs. Li touched a washed sand fruit from the basin and gnawed it bit by bit with her teeth. Seeing that Mingbei said that he was going to eat there, she decided to block the words for him first: "Mingbei, ah , I discussed it with your mother. When you go back to the youth order, we will bring you some pickles and soy sauce. As for the sesame cakes and steamed buns, if you want to bring them, you can go to the grain store and buy them yourself. You earn your own money now. Now, you can’t always rely on the old man to support you, we will take care of eating at home in the future, and we won’t worry about it outside, not only for you, but also for your three brothers.”

Ming Dong opened his mouth and wanted to say something different. After all, there was a big gap between the work points earned by the youth and the wages they earned, but when he saw Mrs. Li's serious expression, he knew that there was something he didn't know, so he closed his mouth and didn't say anything. .

Ming Bei pondered for a while, and thought about it, and all but his three brothers paid home. Mingbei silently counted the money he earned for a month, and sadly found that there was really nothing left except for food, and even because he spent three yuan in exchange for a pen, he still owes the educated youth the money for the meal.

Mingbei bowed his head in shame: "I don't ask the family for it, it's just..." His face flushed a little: "It's just that we have less work points, maybe I can't pay the family now."

Seeing that Mingbei had this consciousness, Mrs. Li breathed a sigh of relief: "Then let's delay you for a few years, but we can agree that if you get married and live in the future, you will have to give your parents pension money. As for your living, you are poor. There are those who are poor and those who are rich, and those who are wealthy, so we won't subsidize you."

Speaking of getting married, Mingbei was not as excited as he was before he went to the Youth Point. He was silent for a while, and smiled at Mrs. Li: "I don't know when I will be able to marry a daughter-in-law."

After hearing the meaning of these words, Mrs. Li knew that the girl was not in love with Mingbei, and she didn't know if it would happen in the future, so she said with relief: "You are still young, it's not good to get married early, when will it happen? It's not too late to get married when you can support your family."

Ming Bei nodded, and Ming Dong smiled and said, "Speaking of which, I took advantage. When I got married, Osmanthus and Meat Bun were taken care of at home."

Mrs. Li smiled when she heard it: "It's different, Osmanthus grew up in our parents, just like her own children, it doesn't make any difference whether you get married or not."

"Why is there no difference? If you don't get married, you can have meat buns and bean buns." Ming Dong said with a cheeky smile.

Mrs. Li burst out laughing: "It's not enough to have meat buns and bean buns. If you two work hard to give me a great-granddaughter, then we will call them sugar buns."

Zhen Zhen immediately gave a thumbs up and nodded with approval: "This name is good, it's delicious when you hear it."

At noon, Wang Sufen and Osmanthus cooked a large table of dishes, and Mingnan brought Meng Xiaoxi over. It was the first time she saw Osmanthus, Meng Xiaoxi was still a little reserved, and her pretty face blushed and called out to my sister-in-law, looking a little embarrassed.

"This is Xiaoxi." Osmanthus smiled and held her hand: "You look really good, I just listened to Mingnan talking about you these two days." Meng Xiaoxi heard the words and looked back at Mingnan with a full expression. Happiness and joy: "I also often hear Mingnan talk about eldest brother and sister-in-law."

Wang Sufen was also happy that her daughter-in-law was in harmony, and said quickly, "Osmanthus accompanies Xiaoxi into the house to talk, I'll finish it right away, you don't need to help here."

Osmanthus saw that Xiaoxi was shy, so she took her to the house and sat on the kang to talk, explaining what happened when Nan was a child.

Because the stream came, the old Li family did not go to the kang to eat, but set up a big round table. Mingbei Qingtang ate kelp for 20 days, and his mouth was full of earthy smell. He looked at the table. The pork belly stewed with sauerkraut, potatoes stewed with dried beans, crucian carp stewed with sauce, and venison stewed with carrots all made his eyes go straight. He grabbed a pancake and took a bite, then stuffed a piece of venison into his mouth, tears were about to fall: "Our food is still delicious."

Meng Xiaoxi couldn't help but smile when he saw Mingbei gobbling down: "Everyone who came back from Youth Point recently is like this. The second brother from the house next door to my house has doubled his appetite since he came home after staying at Youth Point for ten days last time. He said that he wanted to take two bites when he saw the pickles."

Mingbei nodded in agreement while stuffing meat into his mouth: "The dishes made by the young people have no oil, not to mention water, and they have no taste at all. And that big pancake, with more sweet potato noodles than rice noodles. , you have to drink water to swallow after one bite, but it is quite hungry."

Mrs. Li smiled and said, "You don't remember anything, our family used to eat this kind of food when you were a child. At that time, there were not many wastelands. Basically, cabbage and potatoes were grown. There was only one mu of land for soybeans. After the soybeans are harvested, the ground tofu has to be kept, and there is not much oil at all. I usually buy oil according to the supply quantity, and I also expect to buy some pork with fat and fat to squeeze oil, but even so I cook every time I cook. I only put a little bit of it at times, how dare I put so much oil like I do now.”

Wang Sufen remembered the past days and nodded: "At that time, although I ate clear soup with little water, I was able to eat enough. I only complained in the year of natural disasters, let alone oil, I couldn't even buy coarse grains, and I picked them every day. Wild vegetables and sweet potato noodles are a one-day meal, and Ming Bei said at that time that his face turned green when he ate it."

Mingbei didn't have a deep impression of that time. It seems that he vaguely remembered that he was hungry for a while, and then he was able to catch a lot of fish, and he also caught hares and pheasants from time to time. What a strange thing. Ming Bei only thought it was because of more and more wasteland being opened up at home, and immediately said with anticipation: "When the spring starts next year, our youth will also start to open up wasteland and cultivate land, and when we harvest food in autumn, it is estimated that we will be able to eat next year's autumn and winter as well. Okay."

Mingdong looked at him sympathetically: "Do you think that you can plant rice, wheat, etc. when you open up wasteland? You are re-educated by poor and lower-middle peasants, not to enjoy happiness. At that time, it will still be corn and sweet potatoes. High and hungry, as for refined grains, I guess we have to rely on supplies, right?"

When talking about this, Mingbei was full of bitterness: "It costs five cents to supply steamed buns twice a month, which is enough to eat four large pancakes, and I'm not willing to buy them."

"Aren't your work points enough to spend?" Mingdong asked, "Should you have enough to eat?"

Mingbei remembered the three yuan he had spent wrongly, and suddenly he had a hard time saying, mother, sixty steamed buns are just gone, are you stupid?

When Mingnan saw Mingbei, he didn't know what to think, so he shoved the big cake into his mouth with a look of grief and anger, and couldn't help but put a black line on his face: "You eat slowly, no one is robbing you, this is not a steamed bun, use Are you in such a hurry to eat?"

Mingbei swallowed the big cake with a sad face: "Fortunately, it is a big cake. If it is steamed bread, I will not eat it."

"Why?" The family looked at him curiously, Ming Bei rubbed his face and lowered his head depressedly: "No reason, I just want to give myself a memory."

Seeing that Mingbei, who has always had little roots, also had his own little secret, everyone smiled and changed the subject. After eating, Mingbei took the initiative to take the wooden box with the pen to Mrs. Li's house to admit his mistake: "Nurse, I bought the pen that my brother gave me, and I used it to help the young man build a house to earn money. work points."

Mrs. Li didn't even lift her eyelids: "Oh, how many buns did you spend?"

Mingbei's heart hurts, and he replies in dejection: "It's not steamed buns, it's money."

"Oh." Mrs. Li's eyelids jumped: "How much money can I exchange for steamed buns?"

Ming Bei glanced at Mrs. Li with a guilty conscience, then lowered his head quickly, and said in a low voice, "Six...sixty..."

Mrs. Li's hand subconsciously touched the cigarette bag and pot, and Mingbei immediately lowered his head, but after waiting for a long time, he didn't see Mrs. Li smoking him, so he carefully raised his head and secretly looked at Mrs. Li.

There was no joy on Mrs. Li's face. She didn't smoke Mingbei with a cigarette pot, but put on some tobacco leaves and started smoking: "Mingbei, you are too old, you can talk and do things for a bit later. This time. Let's not talk about how much you spend, but it's okay to know that you can buy a pen with your own money. Otherwise, you say that when your brother comes back this time, if you see an old pen you haven't seen before, you will be fine. What will you say then?"

Ming Bei blushed in shame, his lips moved slightly, and he looked at Mrs. Li with a face full of prayer: "Nurs, now I bought the pen, it's the one my brother gave me, you and my mother and me. Third brother said, don't tell my eldest brother about this, I don't want eldest brother to feel cold."

Mrs. Li nodded slowly: "No, I finally know something about personnel. By the way, I heard from Xiaoxi that your work points are due at the end of the month. Do you have enough money left to eat?"

Mingbei shook his head: "I owe the young man first, and then pay it back when the money is sent."

Mrs. Li looked at him sneeringly: "Then borrow it again next month?"

Mingbei lowered his head again: "Actually, I don't owe much. The last time I built a house, I had three yuan left in addition to buying pens. Many people owe a month's worth of meals. I'll come back less when I have a break. Two trips, you can make up the money."

Only then did Mrs. Li know that the last time Mingbei didn't go home, she was carrying wood to make money, and she was very relieved: "It's good to have this idea. When you go back after the new year, I will ask your mother to give you more. Put some pickles, when will you make up the money and go home, do you hear?"

Seeing that Mrs. Li didn't smoke herself, and said that she would bring pickled vegetables, Mingbei immediately nodded happily, and asked Wang Sufen to talk about it, Mrs. Li couldn't help shaking her head: "This child It's still a little lack of heart, and it's too coaxing."

Meng Xiaoxi stayed at Old Li's house until 2 o'clock in the afternoon and was about to go home. Mrs. Li called her and Osmanthus into the room, opened the box and took two identical pieces of woolen material from the inside: "This is a family trustee from another place. The materials I bought will give you two a piece of clothing to wear in the new year."

Meng Xiaoxi quickly waved his hand when he saw such a valuable material: "milk, I can't have this. If I take it home, my mother has to say I can't."

Mrs. Li smiled and patted her hand: "Sooner or later, it's our daughter-in-law. What can grandma give you a piece of clothing material?" Meng Xiaoxi blushed and lowered her head, revealing a white neck.

Mrs. Li smiled, looking at Meng Xiaoxi and Osmanthus in her eyes full of love: "Although we can't have a happy New Year this year, you will be part of our family when the New Year turns next year. This material will be given to you sooner or later. What's the difference, can't your sister-in-law have you or not? When the time comes, people should hear that I'm biased. "

Osmanthus took the cloth and measured it on Meng Xiaoxi, then boasted with a smile: "Xiaoxi's skin is white, and it will look good when she makes clothes." She took Xiaoxi's hand and looked at her with a smile: "When the time comes, let's The two do the same thing, go out and be like sisters." Meng Xiaoxi looked at Osmanthus, and nodded shyly.

There are still more than ten days before the Chinese New Year, and the family is busy again. Osmanthus finds a day when the weather is good, and disassembles and washes all the quilts and mattresses in the house. superior. Wang Sufen took a rag and wiped it everywhere, but fortunately, the house was cleaned before the sky, and there was no dust. Now she just found some dead spots and wiped it.

Zhen Zhen followed Wang Sufen to help her wash the rag and carry water. After a while, Wang Sufen sent her back to the house to rest: "I'll finish it in a while, you go to the house for a while."

Zhen Zhen looked at her helplessly: "I'm such an old girl, I can't do nothing."

Wang Sufen looked around and finally found a job for her: "Then you can make a pot of frozen pears, and it will be delicious when we finish the work." Zhen Zhen picked up a dozen frozen hard pears and put them in the pot, Ladle full of water. As long as you wait for ten minutes, the original water will freeze, and the thicker the frozen pears, the softer they will become. When you touch the frozen pears, the inside and outside are soft and you can eat them.

After soaking the frozen pears, Zhen Zhen ran over again, Wang Sufen pointed to the East Room: "Go and listen to the radio with your grandma, and tell me what's inside later."

Seeing that Wang Sufen really didn't want to help her, Zhen Zhen went back to the east room and turned on the radio.

News and newspaper summaries were playing on the radio, just as Zhen Zhen got up from the kang, she wanted to twiddle a certain channel to see if there was any storytelling, and she heard the radio say: "Mr. Selfless, a famous writer and people's artist in my country, has won this year's Nobel Prize. Literary prizes. Nobel Prizes are the world's...”

Zhen Zhen jumped up from the kang excitedly, hugging Mrs. Li and screaming and jumping excitedly, Mrs. Li was startled by Zhen Zhen, she couldn't help pulling her arm around her and asked: "what happened?"

"Mr. Forgotten has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first time in the history of China." Zhen Zhenle's mouth couldn't close, she quickly wanted to listen to what the radio said, but unfortunately the radio didn't even introduce Mr. Forgettable's works, so she just Start broadcasting the next news.

"Then what is the award for? Are you going to give out a certificate?" Seeing that Zhen Zhen was so excited, Mrs. Li couldn't help but become curious.

"It's more than a certificate." Zhen Zhen smiled and hugged Mrs. Li's neck: "This is a very important honor and a recognition of Mr. Selfless's literary works. Of course, there are also certificates of merit, in addition to a gold Medal and a check."

"What is the check?" After thinking about it, Mrs. Li realized that she had never seen this bill before: "What did you buy it for?"

Zhen Zhen was immediately amused: "It is similar to a passbook for withdrawing money. Give the check to the savings house, and the savings house will give the money according to the amount above."

When Mrs. Li saw Zhen Zhen talking about money, her eyes crooked with laughter, and she quickly asked, "Did you get old nose money? Do you have one hundred yuan?"

Although the money that Mrs. Li hid in the box is more than 100 yuan, she is still a huge amount. After all, in this day and age, people who get honors are usually given a jar, a thermos, or a bonus. Really few.

"You're so cute, you're still a hundred dollars." She put her arms around Mrs. Li's neck and smiled happily: "You have to add a few zeros to the back." Seeing that Mrs. Li didn't quite understand, Then he said bluntly: "It's hundreds of thousands."

"Thousands... ten thousand..." Mrs. Li couldn't understand: "How much is a hundred yuan?"

Zhen Zhen did the math, and roughly estimated the number of prizes for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature: "Three or four thousand, 100 yuan."

Mrs. Li was so frightened that she didn't dare to swallow her saliva: "My darling, so much money can't be spent for thousands of children and thousands of grandchildren."

Zhen Zhen smiled and got off the kang and put on the padded jacket and was about to run out. Mrs. Li hurriedly handed her the hat and gloves and asked, "Where are you going?"

Zhen Zhen took the hat and put it on her head, while running out, she said, "Go buy a newspaper! I want to buy ten copies!"

Zhen Zhen didn't go to the post office on the street to buy newspapers, but went directly to the imperial capital to buy all the newspapers of the day. Sure enough, she saw the news of the self-absorbed award from above, and hurriedly teleported to the mountain, and shouted as soon as she got out of the cave: "Teachers, Mr. Ego's award has been published in the newspaper!"