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(continued) In fact, I have always liked scalpers.
When I was grazing cattle in the Chejia cage with my second sister, my second sister was cutting cattails (hay for stoves) on the hillside. I didn't want to cut the grass, so I often went into the bamboo awns' nest to cut the freshly grown ones. Miscanthus sprouts are eaten by cattle.
As my mother said, cows are humane. Every time I gave a handful of Miscanthus buds to Huang Niu Gu to eat, Huang Niu Gu looked at me very friendly with his two duck-egg-sized eyes.
When I took over the cow rope, I always had a small scimitar in my waist and a bamboo whip in my hand. I often use a small machete to cut miscanthus anytime and anywhere for cattle to eat, and use a small bamboo whip to beat the grass on the roadside to drive away snakes.
Even in the summer when the grass is abundant, I will insist on cutting a small bundle of tender green grass every day, bring it back to the cattle pen, and save it for the cattle to eat slowly at night.
Because of cutting miscanthus, I once cut off the green bamboo snake lying on the miscanthus, and was also bitten by the green bamboo snake lying on the miscanthus that was exactly the same color as the miscanthus? Although snake medicine was applied in time, his life was not in danger. However, that night, the wound was as painful as a knife, and I couldn't help crying for most of the night.
As for the exquisite bamboo whip made by my father himself, I have basically never used it, because I secretly tried it myself, and it was very painful when it hit my calf. Moreover, Huang Niu Gu doesn't need a whip at all, he is very well-behaved. Sometimes, even if I block its way, it will gently nudge my hand with its nose.
From the age of six to the time when I graduated from elementary school, I was always responsible for raising the cattle. Occasionally, my elder brother would take care of them once or twice. Although
can't speak human language, the scalper that I really get along with every day has always been the main force of the production team in plowing the fields, and has never missed the spring plowing and summer planting of the production team in any season. In addition, our family earns 800 work points every year, which contributes a lot to reducing overspending.
During spring plowing every year, because there is not enough green grass, I am worried that the physical strength of the cattle cannot keep up with the needs of plowing. The production team provides a pound of brown rice subsidy for each cow every day, and cooks porridge for the cows. I go to the accountant's house every evening to receive it. A pound of brown rice for my mother.
In the beginning, my mother would give me half a bucket of brown rice porridge every morning and let me feed the cattle. Other people's buffaloes were poured into a basin and allowed to drink by themselves, but the scalpers refused to drink. There was no other way, so my father made a pointed bamboo tube with a handle from moso bamboo , and asked me to hold the cow's head and pour it into my mouth. Every time I poured it, the big eyes of the cow shed tears.
One morning, I secretly took a sip of brown rice porridge and found that the brown rice porridge fed to the cows tasted better than the white porridge I had for breakfast. It was very delicious. So, I told my mother that I should cut as many Miscanthus buds as possible for the cattle to eat every morning instead of cooking porridge for the cattle. But my mother still filled the porridge for me to eat with the cattle every morning. But slowly, the cows were so full of bamboo grass that they could no longer keep the water down. In this way, Huang Niugu helps our family earn dozens of kilograms of white rice every spring plowing.
Herding cows and reading at the same time was the happiest and most free time in my youth.
I can’t remember how many mornings and evenings, or how many summers and winters, Huang Niu Gu accompanied me by the river, on the hills, and in the fields, leaving behind the figure of Huang Niu Gu and me together. It also left behind countless teenage dreams and joys for me.
A cattle scalper who understands human nature, except for one time when I forgot about the cow on the post and entered into someone else's vegetable field because of sticking to a dragonfly, there was only one time when I ate a rice seedling from the production team because I read the novel "Bitter Cauliflower". However, I was very lucky, because it was the evening when it was getting dark, so I was not discovered and no work points were deducted.
As a bull, Huang Niu was also borrowed by the production team next door for breeding many times, but he never got sick or went crazy. Except for hurting my second sister, I have never hurt anyone in the village.
Of course, only I can touch the cow's head and horns, although I can't climb on the cow's back and enjoy myself like a buffalo. But the cattle are the cattle that work the most in the production team, and I am famous for herding cattle.Even many years later, when the elders in the village saw me, they would still talk about the only ox in the village.
It should be the day of the winter vacation in the first semester of the second grade of junior high school. My elder brother and I went into the mountains to carry wood and came back. When we passed by Zhentou, we found that there were many people gathered at the foot of the hillside of Longtou Bay. When I went over and took a look, I almost fainted. past.
It turns out that the little brother took the cow to the hillside of Longtou Bay to eat miscanthus. There was a ditch that had been abandoned for many years at the foot of the mountain. The ten-year-old cow accidentally slipped into the ditch because it was eating a bunch of miscanthus. The narrow ditch trapped the cattle tightly in the ditch, making life worse than death. When the adults of the
production team saw that there was no hope of treatment, these guys who originally wanted to eat yellow beef decided to kill the scalpers alive in the ditch. When I arrived, everything was already sorted out. My father knew my feelings for scalpers, so he dragged me home without letting me see the cruel scene.
That night, every household in the village smelled of beef. Our family also shared several kilograms of yellow beef. My father stewed it in a big pot with old ginger. I packed a bowl of white rice and pickled vegetables and ate them quickly, then ran to the post for a walk. My brother came over and called me several times, but I didn’t dare to go home and eat yellow beef.
In the cold wind of early winter, I was filled with sadness. My mind was filled with the shadow of the scalper. I couldn't figure out how the life of this old scalper who couldn't speak but understood human nature would end like this. So for many years, whenever there was beef on the table, I would ask whether it was cattle or buffalo, and I refused to eat yellow beef. The reason why
chose "Hua Niu Ku" as the last article in the "Youth Memory" series is because the ending of Huang Niu Ku is too heavy in the memories of young people.
Although decades have passed, there are so many memories of childhood fights with scalpers that they often appear in my mind or even in my dreams.
"Youth Memory" is over and "Youth Story" has begun, so stay tuned.
