During the great famine of 1961, Sichuan desperately catered to Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" ideas and handed over to the central government far more grain than the actual production, making Chengdu, known as the "Land of Abundance", The plains are also plunged into hunger that has not been seen in thousands of years.
At that time, my father was in middle school. According to regulations, each middle school student had a food book and a monthly ration of fifteen kilograms of rice. Of course, these fifteen kilograms of rice cannot completely fill the stomach - a boy who is in the growth stage and has no oil or water can only eat fifteen kilograms of rice every month. How can it be enough? However, these fifteen kilograms of rice can be called "life-saving food". If you don't eat enough, you won't starve to death.
Dad said that if he had not been admitted to the county high school and worked as a farmer in the countryside, he would probably have starved to death - among his peers, countless people fell silently to death in the fields. . Many childhood playmates disappeared during those years.
With this ration, my father still saves one-third of it every month, taking it home to cook with bran flour and sweet potatoes for grandma and aunt. He goes home once a week. There are more than fifty miles of mountain road from the county seat to the village. He set out as soon as school was over on Saturday afternoon, and it was already late at night when he walked home. Without shoes, his feet were calloused on the gravel road.
Once, after helping with farm work at home for a whole day, and just about to return to school, my father suddenly discovered that the food in his pocket was missing. Suddenly, he felt as if he had received an electric shock. His whole body became weak and he squatted on the ground for a long time, unable to stand up. He wanted to cry, but his voice was hoarse and he couldn't cry. As soon as grandma heard the news, she realized that the situation was serious - without food, half of her life would be lost. What can we do? Sweat dripped from her forehead drop by drop.
Fortunately, grandma is used to being the head of the family and is a knowledgeable and thoughtful mother. She immediately asked her father: 'When did the food book get lost? '
Dad recalled it in detail and told grandma: 'I checked it specially when I went to bed last night. At that time, the food book was still in my pocket. '
Grandma analyzed that since the food was not lost outside but was lost at home, there is still hope of getting it back. She immediately thought that the food must have been stolen by someone who had been at home that day.
Who stole it?
Grandma carefully recalled the people who came to the house. On this day, there was only one guest in the house - my grandma married a poorer sister who went to the village next to her, that is, my father's aunt.
My aunt couldn’t open the pot at home, so she ran to her grandma for help. Grandma is a widow, how can I save her? But grandma saw that her sister was really pitiful, so she cooked two sweet potatoes to help her. My aunt hugged the sweet potato and said goodbye with great gratitude.
'Could it be that my sister actually did such a shameful thing? 'Grandma thought painfully. She didn't want to believe this was true. However, apart from my father's aunt, there was no one else who came to the house. Well, this is the only fact.
Making a decisive decision, grandma and dad rushed to the grain station. Grandma said to Dad: 'If your aunt really stole the grain book, she would definitely go to the grain station to cash in the grain. We blocked the grain station in advance, and there was still a glimmer of hope for retrieving the grain. '
When they arrived at the grain station, they explained the situation to the staff. The staff saw a woman with a skinny child, and after hearing their cries, they immediately felt compassion. The staff promised them that if anyone came to pick up grain with a grain book with Dad's name on it, they would detain him immediately.
Grandma didn’t say that the thief might be her sister or the child’s aunt. This fact made her extremely humiliated. However, this fact is likely to be immediately exposed to her without any concealment.
The staff asked the mother and son to hide in the room and told them that as soon as there was news, they would be notified to come out and catch the thief.
Dad and grandma stayed in the office of the grain station. Stayed for more than three hours.
For the grandma, those three-plus hours were such a painful ordeal: she was looking forward to it, hoping to find the food book. Once she found the food book, she also found her son's Life; but how much she didn’t want to find out that the thief was her own sister and her child’s aunt! How will she face her biological sister in the future?
Suddenly, there was a dispute outside. It was a staff member arguing with a woman. The sound was loud and could be heard very clearly in the room. When grandma heard the sound, she immediately felt as if she had received an electric shock. She recognized the woman's voice - it was indeed her own sister and her child's aunt!
Grandma and dad rushed out. The aunt saw her father first, her skinny nephew. She immediately stopped arguing with the grain station staff. Her face turned pale, she covered her face in humiliation, turned her back, and immediately squatted on the ground. Grandma walked up and scolded her sister with snot and tears: "Why are you so cruel? Didn't you kill your nephew?" Are you still worthy of being your child's aunt? '
My aunt kept covering her face, not daring to look at grandma and dad, and not saying a word.
The staff at the grain station were stunned by this scene.
Suddenly, my aunt also burst into tears: 'Sister, you can scold me, you can hit me, I am not a human being! I shouldn't have done such a shameful thing. However, my children haven’t eaten for several days and they are starving to death! I’m a mother too, what should I do? '
The two women cried bitterly as if no one was watching. One of them cried more sadly than the other. They attracted many people to watch. Anyway, my face is already torn, so what face is left in the face of hunger? They simply burst into tears.
They don’t know who to curse, who to resent, or who caused all this. To think and answer all these questions is far beyond the knowledge structure of two rural women. . They had no choice but to believe that this was 'fate' - this is how farmers have explained the suffering and torture they encountered since ancient times.
A few years later, my father, who was studying in college, gradually understood the source of the suffering of my mother and aunt after painful thinking. After reading a large number of 'forbidden books' lent to him by professors, he figured everything out. Many years later, he told me the answer.
At that time, the thin father was at a loss. He didn't dare to persuade his mother, let alone visit his aunt. He kept burying his head and looking at his toes, as if all the mistakes were his own fault.
That scene is just the most insignificant and insignificant microcosm of the fate of Chinese farmers.
Later, the father who recovered the grain book finally survived the famine. He lived up to his grandma's high expectations, went to college and became the envy of everyone in the village. But my aunt's son and my father's cousin starved to death in the famine.
From then on, grandma and sister were just passers-by, and they never interacted with each other until their death.