After the disaster

Qiu Cheng and A Chang rode a tricycle through Xinnan City and went directly to the suburbs of the lower reaches of the Xinnan River.

Passing through several high-rise streets, there is an old city. What you can see is a large area of ​​farmland. The clear river flows slowly through the field. There is a bridge not far away, and there is a railway track over there. Well, the villagers around here will hear the sound of the train whistling and passing on this section of the track every once in a while, and now it is rare to see it once or twice a day.

"Hurry up!" After getting off the tricycle, Ah Chang Sa Yazi ran in front, urging Qiu Cheng behind him as he ran.In the water area in front of him, when he came back last time, he saw a lot of snails.

"Don't get too close to the village." Qiu Cheng shouted at him.

"I know." Qiu Chengcheng told him many times along the way that if he quarreled with someone, he would have to go to the police station if he couldn't make it right.

Qiu Cheng found a place to lock up the tricycle. This place was on a higher ground and the surroundings were open. When they were groping for snails in the river, if someone approached their tricycle, they could find it in time.

The water flow in this section of the river beach is relatively shallow. In some places, river sand and silt have accumulated, and a lot of weeds have grown. There should indeed be more snails in such places.

When Ah Chang reached the river, he took off the two slippers on his feet and put them in the bucket, and then stretched out his hand to Qiu Cheng. Qiu Cheng knew what he meant, but he didn't hand over the slippers on his feet to him. He asked him to put it in the bucket, but pulled a few tough weeds from the bank, took off the clips, and hung them on the nose of his trousers with the weeds.

Then he took out the slippers Ah Chang put in the bucket, and hung them on the side of his back in the same way.Ah Chang twisted his neck and looked behind him, quite satisfied, he grinned at Qiu Cheng and went down the river with a bucket.

Under Ah Chang's leadership, the two of them didn't go to other places, they just burrowed into the grass. The grass is dense in this place. Qiu Cheng originally thought about whether he would encounter water snakes or something, but they burrowed around in the grass. After walking around for a long time, I didn't see a snake, but there were some insects.

There are not too many snails, but fortunately, both of them have very good eyesight. Wherever they go, no matter whether it is a large or small snail, they have all been scoured. After a while, look at the bucket, and the harvest is indeed better than the water they fetch every morning. The place is much better.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" At this moment, a group of children came by the river, about six or seven of them looked less than ten years old. Although Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang were both grown men, they occupied There are many people, and I am not very afraid.

"What's wrong?" Qiu Cheng asked them.It wasn't that there were no nearby villagers passing by this area just now, and they didn't say anything, but these children were lenient.

"This area belongs to our village. You can't catch fish here, and you can't touch snails here." A child issued a statement righteously.

"Oh, Xinnan River still belongs to your village?" Qiu Cheng laughed.

"This area belongs to our village!"

"It belongs to our village!" The children were anxious, saying that this place belonged to their village, but they couldn't explain why.

"Come here." Qiu Cheng waved to them.

"Why?" These children were all very wary.

Qiu Cheng didn't say anything, and directly touched two pieces of pumpkin corn cakes that were cut into squares from Ah Chang's back, and threw them to the group of children on the bank.He can't really quarrel with such a group of brats. He's so old, he's shameless, and one of them doesn't do well, and his parents come to him. It's not a joke. The shells are gone.

"What is this?" These little kids were quick-eyed and quick-handed. They threw two pieces of pastry and caught them without a trace of dirt sticking to them.

"Can't tell? Eat it." Qiu Cheng took out a piece of pumpkin corn cake from his bag, broke it in half, ate half by himself, and stuffed the other half into Ah Chang's mouth.

"It won't be poisonous, right?" A little boy asked carelessly.

"I like to eat or not." Qiu Cheng smiled, and continued to touch his snails. As for the children on the shore, they stopped yelling that this water area belonged to their village, and they were debating whether to eat it or not. Drop these two cakes.

"I'll eat a piece first, and you can eat later if you have nothing to do." Soon, a little chubby man stood up bravely. He was short of food and drink these days, so it was hard for him to gain such body fat for himself.

He is also afraid of death, helpless, these two cakes are really delicious, and there are so many children in their village, even if he eats it badly, they have to send him home, thinking about it , he couldn't bear it anymore.

"Blind! Do you still want to eat one piece by yourself? I'll give you half a piece at most!" That's a big deal to give half a piece. Who made him the only one among so many children who dared to test the poison himself?

Then the little fat man ate half of the pumpkin corn cake first. After eating, the children watched eagerly, standing first, then squatting, and soon there were children rolling on the river beach Son, tell the hairy boy in the lead, I have tried it, it is not poisonous, let me eat it...

In the end, of course they were eaten, and the rest of the pastry was shared among the children, each of whom didn’t get much. After eating it in two mouthfuls, they licked their fingers unsatisfied, and then went to see Qiu Cheng who was stroking the snails in the river The two of them immediately felt pleasing to the eye, no matter how they looked, they looked like good people, and they didn't object to them touching snails in the waters around their village.

I heard from their parents that the escargot is delicious when fried with enough seasoning, but they don’t have such an impression. These children are still too young, and they basically don’t know much about what happened before the X virus broke out. From memory, they only know that snails don't taste very good whether they are boiled or baked, and they are not as good as the earthy dogs in the field.

These children squatted on the shore for a while, probably because they were bored, they also rolled up their trouser legs and went into the water to help Qiu Cheng and the others touch the snails.

Ah Chang and Qiu Cheng have lived together for a few months, and gradually understand many things, such as their business in the night market, and Qiu Cheng occasionally providing some help to others. It's really the first time for them.

Ah Chang was a little confused about what was going on, but he was still in a good mood, especially when those little kids made a fuss and yelled at the bucket: "Wow! There are so many! Where did you get so many snails?" ?”

In two or three hours, the group of them searched almost all the waters. If they continued to search, they probably wouldn't gain much, so Qiu Cheng called Ah Chang to go ashore for dinner.

They ate something before going out, but they walked from the west to the east of the city and touched snails in the river for a few hours, so they were already hungry by now.

Ah Chang went ashore with a bucket, half of which contained large and small snails, and some river water.

They were sitting on the grass by the shore. Ah Chang took out a large fresh-keeping box from his backpack, which contained pieces of golden yellow pumpkin corn cakes, and the children who came ashore afterward, one by one, had their eyes glued to the box. The pastry couldn't be moved.

Ah Chang liked these children very much, but he was a little bit reluctant to part with the pumpkin corn cake, so he turned his eyes to Qiu Cheng for help.

"Let's eat together." Qiu Cheng said.It’s rare to come out once, and this kind of thing is not often encountered. They have pumpkin and cornmeal at home. If you want to eat it, just do it next time.

Hearing what Qiu Cheng said, Ah Chang opened the crisper very carefully, took a piece of pumpkin corn cake from it and handed it to the leader of the group of children.

"..." The little boy took the piece of cake, but still stared at the box in Ah Chang's hand.

"!" Ah Chang lowered the corner of his mouth, lowered his head to pick and choose in the box, and wanted to pick another small one for them.

Seeing this scene, Qiu Cheng thought it was a little funny, walked over barefoot on the grass, squatted down in front of Ah Chang, reached out to take the crisper, took out two pieces of pumpkin corn cakes, one for himself and one for Ah Chang, and the rest All the money was given to those children: "Take it and divide it."

"Oh oh oh!" The group of hairy kids cheered immediately, a group of people gathered around, and divided up the box of pastries in a few strokes. The kid was quite thoughtful, and took the fresh-keeping box to the river to wash it clean , shook it again, closed the lid, and sent it back to Qiu Cheng.

After eating a piece of pastry, Qiu Chengcheng picked up the bucket and went to the tricycle.Ah Chang ate his piece and licked his fingers. He felt very unsatisfactory. He couldn't help looking at the pumpkin corn cakes in the hands of those children. Finally, he picked up the backpack on the ground and followed Qiu Cheng. .

"Hey, when are you coming back?"

"Will you come to touch the snails in the future?"

"A little further down in our village, there are still a lot of snails. If you're lucky, you can catch fish. Come back next time, and I'll take you there."

Seeing that Qiu Cheng and the others were about to leave, these children followed one after another. The pumpkin and corn cakes in their hands hadn't been finished yet. Some of them wanted to keep them and eat them slowly, while others planned to take them home to eat with their families. of.

"I'm very busy. It's not easy to go out. I'll talk about it when I have time." Facing these children, Qiu Cheng couldn't say no directly. It's okay to touch the snails with these children near this village. It's not suitable for them to go downstream together, and their parents can't agree. If they really go, he can't be responsible for what happens.

Ah Chang squatted on the side panel of the truck, tilted his head to look at the group of children who were getting farther and farther away from them, and looked at the surrounding vegetation. He felt that the sun was particularly bright today.

Back home that afternoon, the two each ate a few cornbreads, then Ah Chang went to take care of the crops at home, and Qiu Cheng went to 1504 to continue nailing the wooden frame. A few bags of soil that people brought back before were spread on it.

After finishing the work, it was dusk outside. Before going downstairs, Qiu Cheng thought of the sauerkraut that had been soaked a while ago. Although the time was not very long, this is the south after all, and the temperature is relatively high right now, so maybe it’s ready already. .

The two came to 1508, untied the rope on the top of the sauerkraut jar, and lifted off the layers of cotton cloth and plastic cloth covering it. A sour smell permeated the room, and both Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang couldn't help swallowing. Take a mouthful of saliva.

Qiu Cheng reached out and dragged half a cabbage out of the jar, twisted the salt water on the cabbage leaves, handed it to A Chang, and then carefully sealed the jar as it was.

The half cabbage was taken downstairs, and Qiu Cheng didn't know how to eat it for a while. He had eaten sauerkraut before, but it was either stewed pork ribs or stewed meat. Slices of pork belly are stewed together or some shredded pork is fried together, but right now there is no oily star.

Qiu Cheng originally planned to scrape some potatoes and cook them together, but after scraping, he thought of stewed vermicelli with sauerkraut. He thought that even if the meat was not added, it would not be unpalatable to cook these two together, so he put them together again. The millstone at home was moved out.

Together, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang scraped some potatoes, cut them into small pieces, ground them with a stone mill, washed out the potato scum with gauze, after a little precipitation, filtered off the clear water on top, and stirred them with a spoon. For starch, I found a few flat-bottomed stainless steel dishes, poured some starch slurry into each dish, about a centimeter thick, and put it in the pot for steaming.

Qiu Cheng first turned on the stove, added water to the pot, then set up the steaming rack, put a plate filled with potato starch slurry on it, then placed a pair of chopsticks on this plate, and placed another plate on top, and so on, When it was almost at the height of the pot cover, the potato flour they ground that night was all steamed on it.

The washed potato dregs will not be wasted. They can be used to feed chickens, voles and goats. Those pumpkin skins were fed to voles yesterday. Throwing in fresh pumpkin skins with a pumpkin fragrance, the group of voles You can chew on it for a long time.

When the pot was steaming, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang watched TV together on the sofa for a while. After steaming for about 10 minutes, Qiu Cheng reckoned that it was almost done, so he took the pot away and put another pot Go to the stove, put the finely chopped sauerkraut into the pot, add some soy sauce and pepper powder and cook.

Then they took the stainless steel dishes out of the steamer and placed them on the coffee table one by one. The chopsticks they took away were thrown into the steamer and washed together after eating.

Qiu Cheng put these stainless steel dishes upside down on the chopping board, and slowly pulled out the potato powder inside. After cooling down a little, he cut them into thin strips with a kitchen knife. When the sauerkraut soup in the pot was almost boiled, he grabbed Put down some potato flour and cook for a while.

The slippery potato flour is paired with sour cabbage. Although there is no oil star, it tastes very good.I usually ate too many hard tortillas, but now I picked up a pair of smooth chopsticks with soft and glutinous potato flour, and drank a sip of hot, sour, hot soup, not to mention how enjoyable it was.

It's a pity that although the sour cabbage is delicious, it doesn't keep for a long time, especially in the place where they are already humid and hot. If this jar of cabbage doesn't rot and smell, it's God's favor. I want to keep it and eat it slowly for a month or two , but it is impossible.

At around four o'clock in the afternoon the next day, Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang took two large barrels to 1508 to pack pickled cabbage, and after they were packed, they were taken to the night market to sell.

Right now is the time when all kinds of things are waiting to be done. Most people are not having a good life, but there are also those who are having a good time.

Before Qiu Cheng and the others had time to ride their tricycle to the booth that day, they were spotted by such a customer.

"Hey, little brother, little brother, come here." When Qiu Cheng was riding a tricycle to the three-way intersection, he heard someone shouting from the nearby train station square.

It was not yet six o'clock, and although many sheds had been set up in the night market and almost all other stalls were out of business at the moment, after all, there were still relatively few people shopping, so Qiu Cheng could clearly hear the sound.

"Call me?" Qiu Cheng turned around and saw a bald old man with glasses waving at him.

"Hey, it's you, come here." The little old man waved at him while he had already come here, followed by two young people.

"What's the matter?" Qiu Cheng frowned. He obviously didn't know these people. He heard from Lao Hu and the others that there are quite a few liars nowadays. Those who talk to him for no reason like this can't blame him for thinking in that way. up.

"You have sauerkraut in this car, right?" The little old man didn't seem to be in good physical condition, and he was a little out of breath after running for a few steps. At this time, he had already come to the side of Qiu Cheng's tricycle.

"Yes." Qiu Cheng was still on guard.

"How much is a catty?" When the little old man asked here, he had already reached out to lift the lid of one of the plastic buckets, and even pulled a small sauerkraut leaf and put it in his mouth to taste.

Ah Chang stretched out his hand on their tricycle, and his whole body tensed up. After Qiu Cheng patted him twice, he slowly relaxed again.

"Two tortillas." This was the price Qiu Cheng had thought up before going out, and it was the same price as the spicy cabbage before.

"Where's the cornmeal?" the little old man asked again, smacking his lips.

"Six taels." Qiu Cheng replied.

"That's fine, how many of these are there? You can weigh them, and I'll take them all."

"I want all of them?" He was worried that two corn tortillas for a catty of pickled cabbage would be too expensive to sell, but it turned out that they were about to be sold out before they reached his stall?