The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

Because there was no one to take care of it for a long time, the small vegetable garden built by Zhou Quan's family in the yard has long been a piece of weeds.

The concrete floor is also full of potholes, and some damages still reveal the original earthy ground, and scattered weeds grow tenaciously from those damages.

And the two-story building that made Zhou Quan look all the way into the distance stood silently in the courtyard.

This dilapidated old courtyard in the eyes of others is Zhouquan's home since he was a child.

Holding the key to open the door lock on the second floor, the sound of the key colliding with the lock alarmed the residents below the porch.

A pair of barn swallows with black backs, black wings and white bellies, but orange-yellow cheeks and necks flew out of the mud swallow nest under the porch, circling back and forth over Zhouquan's head.

"It's you, you came back so early this year? Yes, I'm back too. It's been a long time."

The swallow's nest under the porch has existed for more than ten years. Since the year when the second floor of this small building was built, some swallows have chosen to make their nests here.

So no matter how long the small building has been built, these swallows have been neighbors with Zhou Quan for as long as possible.

From the perspective of the people in the village, it is a very auspicious thing for swallows to choose to make their nests under their own houses.

Therefore, not only will they not harm the little creatures that stay in their own homes, but when some people build houses, they will specially build porches or balconies, deliberately leaving a place for these little creatures to build their nests.

There is a stale smell in the house where no one has lived for a long time. The first thing Zhouquan does after he enters the house is to open all the doors and windows in the house, start to ventilate the air, and then take out his bedding from the room and put them in the yard to dry .

Then he went back to his room, and put the pot of Chlorophytum that he had been carrying all the way on the windowsill.

As the evening approached, the sun was westward, and the sunlight that shone into the house lost the heat of noon, and it felt warm.

Zhou Quan caressed the leaves of the spider plant with his hand, and the pressed leaves of the spider plant touched Zhou Quan's hand up and down according to the strength, it felt like being touched by the owner, like a cat acting like a spoiled child.

Feeling the itching of his palms, Zhou Quan smiled and said: "This is my hometown. The climate is not much different from the imperial capital, and the four seasons are distinct. It's just that the winter here is colder and the summer hotter. The wind and sand should be bigger."

"Uh, doesn't this introduction sound too good? Hahaha, but this is home, the place where I was born and raised, and I will miss it no matter where I am."

It seems that he is talking to himself inexplicably, but it seems to get a response from the spider plant. The silver star spider plant with long and narrow leaves on both sides of the tender green center has a long white straight line running through it, swaying slightly with Zhouquan's words.

After the spider plants and luggage were settled, Zhouquan started to tidy up the house.

First, light up the two stoves in the east room and the west room on the first floor, so that there is heat in the room. This will not only warm the kang, but also dispel the moisture in the room.

Afterwards, he found a feather duster from his grandfather's east room, put on his mask and hat, and waved the feather duster to sweep the dust in the house.

Although Zhou's small second floor doesn't look very big, it has a usable area of ​​more than 100 square meters.

It is impossible for Zhou Quan to clean up such a big house by himself before dark, so he only plans to clean out his own room first, so that he can have a place to rest at night, and the rest of the rooms can be cleaned up tomorrow. In finishing.

After working in full swing for more than an hour, Zhou Quan took off his mask and stretched out his head. He looked out the window and found that the sun had already set behind the green apricot grove.

It seemed that it would be dark in less than an hour, Zhou Quan, remembering that he hadn't paid homage to the family hall after returning, hurriedly put down the rag in his hand.

Changing into a thicker denim jacket, Zhou Quan, who was in a hurry to burn incense, didn't even bring his mobile phone, so he grabbed the keys and went out.

The village where Zhou Quan lives is called Two Surnames Village. As the name suggests, most of the families living in this village have two surnames.

Just like the name of the village, 90.00% of the villages are people with the surnames Chen and Bao.

With the creek in the center of the village as the boundary, the people living on the higher slopes in the east are basically people with the surname Chen, and the people living in the flat land in the west are all people with the surname Bao.

The surnames of Bao on the west side of the creek are all Mongolian. It is said that their ancestors are in the banner, and they have a family tree and a family temple.

According to the records of the Bao family tree, the Bao surname of this branch is the descendant of Genghis Khan’s second brother Hasar, who belongs to the “Golden Family” and the descendants of the Borzhijin family. They first lived in present-day Inner Mongolia and moved here in the early Qing Dynasty. .

The Chen surname on the east side of the creek is a Han nationality who came from the east of the Guandong during the Republic of China. Because of being displaced for a long time, the family tree edited in the Chen family hall does not record much about the events before the migration. The surname Chen who mentioned this branch should have migrated from Shandong.

It is said that before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the village of the two surnames was bounded by the small river in the village, and there were two villages, namely Baojia Village and Chenjia Village.

Later, due to problems such as land and water sources, the two villages were merged into one and became the current village with two surnames.

Zhouquan's house was built on the west side of the creek, but it belonged to the surname Chen from Hedong.

Zhou Quan's grandfather fled here when he fled the famine, and married the eldest daughter of the Mozhi family in Chenjia Village, that is, Zhou Quan's grandmother. Since then, he has taken root and raised children here.

The family hall is the place where people in the village enshrine and worship the ancestral tablets and genealogy. special distinction.

According to the ancient rules, an old man like Grandpa Zhou Quan who stayed in the village because he married a daughter of his own family would not be eligible to enshrine a memorial tablet in the Chen family hall after his death, because neither Grandpa Zhou Quan nor his descendants None are surnamed Chen.

Unless a son-in-law is recruited like the aunt of the big cousin's family, it is not easy for a man with a different surname to enter other people's family after death.

But the members of the Chen family were grateful for Grandpa Zhou Quan's selfless help to the Chen family, so they said a long time ago that Grandpa Zhou Quan's lineage can enter the Chen family's house to receive incense offerings as long as they are willing.

In the eyes of Zhou Quan's generation, offering incense and offering sacrifices, and dying like a lamp going out, are just rituals used by younger generations to seek inner comfort.

But for the old people of Grandpa Zhou Quan's generation, this is really an honor that represents recognition and belonging.

After offering incense to grandparents, fathers and mothers in the family hall, and muttering about it for a while, Zhou Quan walked out of it contentedly.

On the way home, when he was about to cross the bridge, Zhou Quan ran into the current village head of the two-surnamed village, the eldest cousin of brother Wen Li's family.

When there was still a distance between the two of them, they first recognized Zhou Quan's eldest cousin and said loudly to him: "Ah Quan, I just met you, otherwise I would have to go to your house to find you. Your little aunt knows You came back and specially caught an old hen and stewed it for you, let's go to our house for dinner."

Zhou Quan, who was grabbed by the strong uncle, squinted his slightly short-sighted eyes, walked a few steps with the other's strength, and then suddenly remembered something and said: "Big cousin, wait a minute, I'll go home and get some things first." .”

"Oh, then hurry up, the stewed chicken with mushrooms at home will be out of the pot immediately, and that dish tastes best when it's hot."

"Yeah, I got it, I got it, you will definitely keep the chicken legs for me."

"Hahaha, you have loved to eat since you were a child, and it hasn't changed since you grew up. Don't worry, the chicken legs are still yours, both of them."

Zhouquan returned home in a hurry, quickly opened his luggage, and dug out Poria biscuits and several sticks of Zhongnanhai cigarettes.

These are local specialties that Zhouquan brought back from the imperial capital and brought them back to the village for the villagers to taste.

The Poria biscuits were brought over for a while, my aunt loved to eat this kind of soft and glutinous food, Zhong Nanhai took two, and the remaining few were kept unpacked into boxes and distributed to the young and old in the village.

In fact, Zhou Quan does not smoke, but there are many old smokers in the village, so Zhou Quan feels that compared to the world-famous Imperial City Roast Duck, this kind of Imperial City cigarettes that cost more than 100 yuan a piece should be more popular with everyone.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Zhou Quan, who went out with a gift, stepped out of the gate, but turned back, and deliberately closed the window on his side of the house.

In the Northeast, even in late April, the temperature at night would drop to only a few degrees. Zhou Quan didn't want to come back and find his precious Chlorophytum frostbitten.

Before dark, Zhou Quan came to the house of his aunt in Hedong, but before he could enter the door, he was blocked by several 'blockers'.

A group of big white geese waving their wings have been hooting non-stop since Zhou Quan approached the courtyard of Chen Wenli's house.

Later, seeing that Zhou Quan ignored their warning and still wanted to enter the yard, the leading gander immediately ran out from the resting place with a waddle.

It clamped its wings tightly, stretched its neck, its head drooped down, forming a slanted line with the neck without any curvature, and its eyes were firmly fixed on Zhou Quan's body, showing a fierce look.

Seeing this, Zhou Quan immediately stopped in his tracks. Having grown up in the village, he certainly knew that this was a sign before the big male goose attacked.

Don't underestimate the big goose that looks after the house. In the northeast, a good goose is better than a good dog.

Especially the big male goose, which has the habit of protecting the nest, is very vigilant when approached by strangers.

When Zhou Quan was young, he was once poked by a big goose because of his naughtiness. The word "pickle" is a verb in Northeast China, which means to be pecked by chickens, ducks, geese and other birds.

In Zhouquan's little memory, the big goose is really painful.

It doesn't let go after a bite, but it clamps a piece of flesh, holds it firmly, shakes its head from side to side and twists vigorously.

Everyone knows the feeling of being pinched and twisted in circles, right? That's not bad at all.

At that time, Xiao Zhouquan was bullied by the big goose and cried bitterly, and since then, he has left a shadow in his heart. As long as he sees those things with flat mouths and slender necks, he will walk around them.

When I heard the geese calling outside the yard just now, all the hairs on Zhouquan's back blew up. If it wasn't for the thought that the goose might not be able to see well now that it was dark, he would have huddled at the door and asked for help. up.

Hearing the noise in the yard, the eldest cousin put on his coat and came out to check. He saw the picture of his nephew being stopped by his own big goose and giving a serious warning.

Suddenly remembered that Zhou Quan was afraid of this kind of thing, so the eldest cousin immediately ran over and scolded: "Go away, go away, the family will block things that don't have eyes, didn't you see that the tiger's head didn't even come out? "

Hutou is a watch dog raised by my cousin's family. Zhouquan was brought back when he was in high school, and he is very old now.

This old dog still remembered Zhouquan's smell, so when he came to the door, he only looked up a few times in the kennel, moved his nose a few times, and then lay down again.

Hearing his master calling his name, the tiger opened his eyes and raised his head, looking in the direction of his master.

Seeing that the owner was just talking, and didn't mean to tell it to go over, the tiger head licked the hanging upper lips on both sides, and put the big head back on its crossed forelimbs again.

The big gander who was scolded by the owner was obviously not reconciled. When it wagged its tail and walked back, the face of the goose with big fists was full of contempt and disdain for Zhou Quan.

Zhou Quan, who was despised by the big goose:......