After the disaster

At ten o'clock that night Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang returned home. After tidying up and washing, Qiu Cheng began to meditate. Ah Chang went out to catch mice. When he came back after catching mice, it was already three o'clock in the morning.

Qiu Cheng had a short time to meditate this night, and he was already fast asleep. Ah Chang crouched on the bedside and looked at him for a while, and then quietly slipped out through the half-open window.

Ah Chang sneaked all the way to the night market. At this time, Xinnan City was quiet, and there was not even a single person on the street, but Ah Chang still refused to expose himself to the light, except for those who were with Qiu Cheng. Sometimes, he used to hide himself.

When he came to the night market, he found that the stove selling stall was still there, as was Qiu Cheng's classmate, and he was curled up motionless in the torn cotton wool. Ah Chang thought he was asleep and was thinking Do you want to fight with him when you suddenly heard a series of gurgling sounds, and then the man named Wang Chengliang turned over, Ah Chang instinctively shrank back into the shadows, and didn't move for a while .

"Gu..."

"Grumbling..."

Wang Chengliang's stomach growled louder and louder, and Ah Chang, who was hiding in the dark, frowned deeply. This situation was unexpected to him. What should we do now?Beat a hungry opponent?The old cat would never do this kind of thing, it would just look at the other party contemptuously, and then swagger past it.

It took a while for Ah Chang to come out of the house. After all this entanglement, it soon arrived at four o'clock in the morning. He felt a little sleepy. After yawning silently, he began to think, what else Go back to sleep first, and then think of a way when you wake up?

At this time, a series of footsteps suddenly came from one end of the road, and Ah Chang, who was about to leave, had to stay for a while longer.

Not long after, Wang Chengliang also heard footsteps. He sat up and looked in the direction of the sound, and soon saw the figure of the person coming. It was a little old man in his 60s with a hunched back.

"Dad, why did you come here so early today?" Wang Chengliang asked aloud.

"I just passed by here, so I'll come here early today." Old man Wang was worried that his youngest son was hungry, but he didn't say so.

"Where are you going?" Wang Chengliang asked him.

"Go to Shuiwei to have a look. I heard that the alfalfa grows well there." The old man Wang said, taking out the thermos cup he was holding in his arms: "Hurry up and eat it while it's hot, your mother just cooked it for you. .”

"Why don't you go there, no village likes people from outside to dig wild vegetables." Wang Chengliang took the thermos, opened the lid, took a sip, and said, "I spent two days at the night market. , I heard that some people were beaten because of this."

"I'll go pick some at dawn, and I'll be back in a while. With my old bones, can they really kill me?" Old man Wang was unmoved.

"Then don't be greedy, pick a little and come back." Wang Chengliang knew that he couldn't talk to his father.

"I know it in my heart." Old man Wang replied.

"I sold a stove last night." Wang Chengliang handed half a tortilla to his father.

"Are these cornbreads enough? You can eat them yourself. I still have some cornmeal at home." Old man Wang didn't reach out to pick it up.

"This soup also adds cornmeal. Our family has a lot of children, and I'm afraid they won't be able to bear it if they don't eat food." Wang Chengliang took another sip of the hot soup, and put the half cornbread directly into his father's hand.

He is the youngest son in the family, and his parents have always loved him. He has two older brothers and one older sister who already have children.The eldest brother runs a waste collection station and has two sons. The second brother is a mason who specializes in making stone steles and lions for people. His business is also good. He has a son and a daughter under him. The third sister divorced and took a daughter alone, but she is a Up to the mark, he was admitted to the civil service before the outbreak of the X virus, and now he can still help his mother's family.

Although these brothers and sisters did not live very well in the past, they were all self-reliant. Wang Chengliang was the youngest son that his parents loved the most, but he was also the one with the least ability. His college entrance examination results were not good, so his parents bought him a coffin. After graduating, they couldn't find a suitable job, so the old couple begged their grandpa to tell their grandmother to help him find a co-op in the traffic police brigade. As a result, when the X virus broke out, his co-cop was immediately laid off.

When Old Man Wang finally left, Wang Chengliang ate some hot food and slept soundly, then Ah Chang came out from the place where he just hid and sneaked in the direction of Jiayuan Community. On the way back, he didn't know what happened. I always feel empty in my heart and a little depressed.

When Ah Chang came home, he didn’t feel like going to sleep anymore. He nestled on the bed for a while, and heard the sound of birds fluttering on the terrace of their house. He stretched his neck and listened again, then quietly He got out of bed silently and went out from the bedroom.

Qiu Cheng was woken up by chirping birds, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Ah Chang squatting beside his bed with a sparrow in his arms. The sparrow handed it to him.

"You caught it?" Qiu Cheng turned his head and looked up at Ah Chang. He didn't expect that this guy could catch not only mice, but also sparrows.

"Yeah." Ah Chang nodded.

"It's amazing!" Qiu Cheng took the sparrow with a smile. This is catching a sparrow with bare hands, and ordinary people can't do it.

"Hey!" Ah Chang grinned, and the previous disappointment was swept away.So what about the classmate, just such a guy who can't even fill his own stomach, Qiu Cheng can't possibly like him.

Just now when Ah Chang heard the noise and went out of the room, he saw a few sparrows secretly eating their corn. The corn cobs harvested on the terrace a while ago were tied into strings by Qiu Cheng and hung on the window outside the terrace. The sparrows are here to dry.

Ah Chang once learned how to catch sparrows from the old cat. The old guy always likes to be alone when he hunts. The water can't catch fish and shrimp. If Ah Chang's wish is not fulfilled, he won't give him fish and shrimp for nothing.

When Qiu Cheng and the others were in the temporary base, the surrounding farmlands were often harmed by swarms of sparrows. In order to protect the crops, they even pulled out nets to catch sparrows. Of course, the sparrows they caught could not be released to them again. They are going to starve to death, who cares whether the sparrows are extinct or not.

Qiu Cheng didn't hesitate at all. After getting up, he tidied up the sparrow in three or two strokes, removed the hair, head and feet, and removed the internal organs in the stomach. The ginger leaf was wrapped, and a layer of mud was wrapped on the outside, and it was directly thrown into the stove and burned with firewood. A pot was placed on it, and a pot of tomato soup was boiled, and two corn tortillas were steamed.

After a while, the tomato soup was cooked, the tortilla was soft, and the sparrow wrapped in mud was drawn out from the stove by Qiu Cheng and placed in an enamel basin. Once the outer mud layer was broken, the fragrance inside immediately wafted away. Throughout the room, the scent of ginger leaves mixed with the strong smell of meat made Ah Chang take a sip of his saliva.

Qiu Cheng pulled out a sparrow's leg himself, and gave the rest to Ah Chang. He caught the sparrow, so naturally he wanted to let him eat the big head.It is said to be a big head, but in fact, a sparrow itself does not have much meat, just enough to hook Ah Chang's greedy worms, but it is far from enough if you want to enjoy it.

After a full stomach and a nap, Ah Chang is going to go out to catch sparrows again. He is very familiar with the surrounding terrain and knows where to catch birds. In the past, he usually took out a few bird eggs to eat. It's delicious, so I never thought about those birds.

Before going out, Qiu Cheng handed him a piece of cornbread, found him a basket, a small stick, and a dark rope, then set up these props in the room, explained to him how to use this The principle and process of the easiest way to buckle a bird.

This method was learned by Qiu Cheng in textbooks. Some students in the class have practiced it. I heard that it is not very easy to use. However, their family Ah Chang is the master who can catch birds with bare hands. Give him a few tools, which should be able to get twice the result with half the effort That's right.In the end, Qiu Cheng found him another cloth bag, and told him to twist the neck and put it in if he caught a sparrow. Otherwise, if the sparrow was chirping, he would never be able to catch another sparrow.

Qiu Cheng himself has neither the experience of catching birds, nor the latent skills as powerful as Ah Chang, so he doesn't want to interfere, he has his own business to do.

The corn cobs hanging outside the terrace to dry were almost dry, and he had to rub the corn kernels down, and the crops planted in wooden baskets also needed to be pulled out to catch insects.After doing this, he cleaned the two mouse cages aside, checked whether the wood around the cages was severely bitten, and repaired them in time if they were broken, and then collected the mouse feces and the leftovers left by the mice. Together, I poured two bottles of urine into it, added some EM bacteria, and put it in room 1501 for fermentation.

At around five o'clock in the afternoon, Ah Chang came back, and the harvest was not bad. A total of six sparrows were caught. Qiu Cheng boiled a pot of water, first scalded the sparrows with boiling water, plucked their hairs, chopped off their heads and feet, and disemboweled them. After washing the organs, I found some seasonings such as pepper powder and five-spice powder. These things were sorted out from Ah Chang's treasures, because the portions were not particularly large, and Qiu Cheng didn't even think about selling them. .

Mix these spices with soy sauce and salt, after thinking about it, Qiu Cheng went to the window sill and took a few fresh peppers that were just picked today, chopped them together with these seasonings, and spread them on the processed sparrows above.

When he finished all this, it seemed that it was not too early. Qiu Chengcheng packed these sparrows in a large crisper and took them directly to the night market. Before going out, he picked some large ginger leaves and brought some firewood.Riding the tricycle out of the Jiayuan community, before entering the main road, there was a section of the road with farmland on both sides. Qiu Chengcheng went down and dug some soil from the field, and took them to the night market together.

When they arrived at the night market, Qiu Cheng asked Wang Chengliang to buy a stove, and together with Ah Chang, they first wrapped the sparrows with ginger leaves, then covered them with soil, turned on the stove, and roasted the sparrows in the night market.

As soon as the stove was turned on, Lao Feng, who was exchanging cornmeal for others, came to watch the excitement. The night market had just opened, and there were stall owners setting up stalls everywhere, and there were not many people visiting the night market.

"Xiao Qiu, what are you doing?" Ever since the deal was made last time, Lao Feng would come over from time to time to get in touch with Qiu Cheng and the others.

"Roast sparrows." Qiu Cheng replied while stuffing firewood into the stove.

"How much is one?" Old Feng asked again.

"Two tortillas and one, do you want to buy them?" Qiu Cheng turned his head and smiled at him.

"Let me see." Lao Feng was also smiling. He raised his chin at Qiu Cheng, indicating that he was busy with his own work, and he didn't say buy it or say he wouldn't buy it.

After a while, customers came to buy tomatoes or voles. I heard that Qiu Cheng and the others were roasting sparrows here, and a few stayed to see what happened. Anyway, they are off work now, and most people have nothing to do. They spend more time outside. It kills time and saves electricity at home.

There was a circle of people around, and when the sparrows were roasted, Qiu Cheng didn't ask them if they would buy them or not, but he knocked one on for Ah Chang first, and when the mud layer opened, the scent wafted out immediately, Ah Chang ha Eating meat with my mouth open, this sparrow is more fragrant than the one this morning, but it is a bit spicy.

Seeing Ah Chang eating meat, many people around him swallowed their saliva. Although it is a bit unseemly, what everyone eats these days is either corn tortillas or wild vegetables. Few people can eat meat throughout the year. , the scent of these aniseed prickly ash has been gone for a long time, how can it stand the gluttony now?

"Xiaoqiu, get me two first." As soon as Lao Feng smelled it, he went back to the stall and brought four corn cakes.

This business is famous for loving his son. There are two nephews present at the moment. He didn't want to buy it at first. After all, he is the son of a brother's family. If he asks his son to eat alone in front of them, he can do it. It's too much, if you want to buy it, you have to have their share. Lao Feng is really reluctant, but looking at the situation, if you don't buy it for a while, it will be gone. His son is still greedy.

"Okay." Qiu Cheng quickly took out two roasted sparrows from the stove, wrapped them in rags and handed them to him.

"This sparrow doesn't have much meat, and two tortillas are too expensive. How about one and a half?" Although the roasted sparrow is delicious, most people still don't want to part with the two tortillas. Food is also very expensive, so seeing someone haggling over the price at this moment, the others are silent, and plan to see the situation first.

"This sparrow is hard to catch." Qiu Cheng shook his head, not intending to lower the price.Although this sparrow was only as meaty as half a vole, it was roasted and seasoned.

Regarding Qiu Cheng's temperament, the old customers at the stall basically knew a little bit about it, and it was okay to ask him to give him a nod, but if he wanted him to lower the price, it meant that it was useless to talk about it.

"Spicy!" At this time, Lao Feng had already eaten two roast sparrows, Lao Feng and his son ate one, and the two nephews ate one.

"How is it, does it taste good?" Lao Feng licked his fingers and asked his two nephews.

"Delicious!" The two young men shared a roasted sparrow, and each of them held their own portion and tasted it bit by bit.

"You two will work hard with the second uncle from now on, and the second uncle will not lose you." I bought everything, and at this time it is natural to buy people's hearts.

"I know! Thank you, Uncle Er!"

"Oh, it's so spicy!"

"Delicious!"

"It's been a long time since I tasted so delicious!"

"Dad, you eat too."

"Eat it, eat it all."

A gust of night wind blows, bringing the smell of meat over there. For Qiu Cheng's side, the remaining three roasted sparrows are not enough, and they will be sold out soon. There are those who are willing to eat but don't catch up , I came to ask and found out that there is no more, that is a pity.

Ah Chang licked his lips, looking at the empty stove with unsatisfactory expression on his face, the sale was too fast, and they were all sold out before he ate the second one, so he must catch a few more sparrows and come back tomorrow.