Early in the morning on the beach, you will see a tinge of orange-red sunrise that just rose in the sky, dyeing the vast sea into golden hues. Through the texture of the clouds and mist, the rays of the sun shine on the mountain peaks that stretch behind the village, transforming into soft lines, like a fairy mountain in a dream.
This supposedly quiet world was broken by the voices of the villagers.
"Everyone wake up, Xiaodong, Xiaoxi, Wuwa, Liuwa, get up now. Grandma will take you all to the sea, hurry up and wash your hands and feet.!"
Miao Yufeng stood in the yard and shouted, turned and entered Mengmeng's room. Mengmeng just finished breastfeeding. Su Wan made her lie on her shoulders and patted her back lightly, and said uncertainty, "Mom, do you want to take Mengmeng with you?"
"Of course, there are no adults at home, how can you keep Mengmeng at home?" Seeing Mengmeng burp, Miao Yufeng took her over, touched her little face and said: "Mengmeng, grandma will take you to the sea, let's take a small wooden car."
Today is the day for people to catch fish in the sea. People from Taoyuan Village all wanted to go. Even the little dolls of three or four years old also run out with small bamboo baskets on their hands.
Miao Yufeng added a piece of clothing to Mengmeng. Put a small straw hat on her, put her in a small wooden car, and pushed her out of the house. Behind her, following the women and children of the old Feng family, Su Wan also took advantage of the gap before class to catch the sea. Everyone was wrapped in headscarves and straw hats, and the whole body was tightly wrapped.
From the old Feng's house to the entrance of the village, there were women and children all the way. The men got up earlier than them, and went to sea in the middle of the night, and have not come back yet.
When I walked to the beach, it was just dawn, but there were already people everywhere, carrying baskets of bamboo, rattan, shovels, branches, and everything that could be used. Find it on the beach.
As soon as the tide receded, Miao Yufeng had sharp eyes and saw a good spot at a glance, and hurriedly urged everyone to say, "Quick, go to the edge of the reef."
Dawa Erwa and the others ran fast, carrying a bamboo basket and running up, occupying the land, making the villagers who followed behind slap their thighs regretfully and say that it was too late. Without the urging of adults, a few little boys started looking for a place to put the shovel.
Miao Yufeng pushed the small wooden cart when she arrived. She parked the wooden cart behind the reef, where there was no wind, and covered the car shed with an old piece of clothing. She didn't care whether Mengmeng could understand it or not. Directly said: "Mengmeng, you wait here obediently, grandma will be back in a while."
Miao Yufeng took the back basket from the back of the car, put on the shovel, and went to catch oysters. She is experienced, and soon finds a piece of oyster on the edge of the reef. This is a good thing, and it can be sold for a lot of money when dried. Miao Yufeng was so happy that she hurriedly started digging, and even ordered her daughter-in-law behind her and said, "Everyone, hurry up and dig, don't wait for the tide to rise and it will be gone."
The shells of oysters are very hard, and the little dolls can't dig them. They picked up the little sea fish stranded on the reef, and they were busy themselves digging the sand to find holes. The beach that had just ebbed was still very wet and soft. As soon as I shoveled down, sometimes there were nests of crabs, clams, oysters, etc. It would be even better if I could dig up the snails.
A little further on the sea, a group of young daughters-in-law rowed a small wooden boat and dived into the reefs to collect baskets of fish for sea vegetables. There was Zhao Chunhua, the daughter-in-law of Feng's second son. She was strong and powerful. A good hand at collecting baskets. Originally, Chen Hongmei had to go too, but she still had a one year old baby, she can only be rest assured if she carried the baby on her back. So Chen Hongmei can't go anywhere, she can only stay on the beach and dig sand.
Mengmeng's little wooden car was made by her grandfather. A wooden frame is woven with vines, two brackets are attached to the front and rear, and four wooden wheels below. Mengmeng lies in it, which is safe and comfortable, but the top is covered by clothes. Now, she could only see a trace of the sky in front of her.
She opened her eyes like black grapes and watched for a while, and soon she got bored. She hummed twice, but no one paid her any attention. Mengmeng put her little hand on her mouth and munched it with relish, after a while she switched to the other hand. She was like a little hamster, when her two small hands came across her neck, she accidentally hooked on the necklace she's wearing.
This thing attracted her attention, and she pulled the red rope with her small hands. This was originally a thin string with only one silk thread. Mengmeng could just pull it, but it would be broken.
That's it, Mengmeng only has the round bead in her hand. She stared at the bead motionless, and suddenly fed it into her mouth, teasing the bead with her tongue for a long time. She was so happy that she was about to grin when the bead slid down her throat.
The baby's throat is so delicate, Mengmeng felt extremely uncomfortable immediately, her little arms and calves kicked around, her face turned red, and she still couldn't spit it out. At this moment, an accident happened.
This bead, which I don't know what it is, actually melted like a sugar ball in Mengmeng's mouth. With a mysterious light, it was completely absorbed by Mengmeng's body, and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye. Disappeared.
Mengmeng didn't feel bad all of a sudden, and she felt very comfortable and wanted to sleep. She closed her eyes and listened to the waves kissing the beach gently, like the most comfortable lullaby, and fell asleep after a while.
People on the beach are still busy, and no one knows what happened to Mengmeng.
When the tide began to rise, people knew it's now time to go back. Miao Yufeng took a look at the harvest and found out that it was not bad. All kinds of baskets were full, and Dawa dug up a small basket of scallops, which was more than the oysters. Precious and rare things, after drying, they become what kind of scallops, and they can be sold for 50 cents a pound outside the mountains.
Miao Yufeng was so happy that she asked her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to carry things back. She came to the side of the small wooden car, and as soon as she took off her clothes, she found that the little granddaughter was looking at her with wide eyes. The gods are so powerful, Miao Yufeng forgot her hard work for a moment, and said lovingly, "Our Mengmeng is so cute, I haven't cried for so long, grandma will give you a hug."
At this time, the sky was bright, and the red glowing rosy clouds gushed out from the horizon, and a red sun was rising, dyeing the beach gold. Mengmeng woke up from her sleep, and was also in good spirits, and cried out a babble.
Miao Yufeng teased her and pointed to the seafood in front of her and said, "Mengmeng, that's the seafood that you can get in the sea of our Taoyuan Village. When you grow up, grandma will take you to swim in the sea. Do you want to play in the sea? ?"
As she talked, she squatted down on the beach with Mengmeng in her arms, squeezed her little hand and said, "Come on, let's touch it, isn't it warm?"
It's strange to say that as soon as Mengmeng's fingers touched the water, a few small blue fishes swam out from the sand below. Yufeng was startled, and quickly hugged Mengmeng away.
Mengmeng actually felt very comfortable and wanted to continue playing in the water, but she didn't know how to say it. She only cried and twisted her little body, which made Miao Yufeng even think she was frightened, and put her arms around her and coaxed softly: "Don't cry, don't cry, grandma's cute, we don't play with water anymore, it's scary."
She got up early this morning and already got busy, she thought that Mengmeng should be hungry too, and there was still a lot of work to do at home, so she pushed her back to the village, passed the primary school in the village, and asked Su Wan to feed Mengmeng by the way.
Only the eldest child and the second child are in the house. The second and third aunts have returned to their own home. Now that they have separated, there is no need to stay and help and Miao Yufeng did not count on them.
She placed Xiao Mengmeng on the edge of the corridor in the main room, greeted her two grandsons, and squatted by the well to start cleaning the seafoods. The crabs, clams, and small sea fish were cleaned and marinated. The oysters, clams, and scallops had to be quickly removed from their shells and spread them out one by one to dry them. If she moves slowly, they will not be fresh.
Miao Yufeng is used to doing these tasks. The big baby and the second baby also help with the cleaning and drying. She is in charge of pickling and shelling, and it will be finished after a while. Seeing the full harvest in the yard, Miao Yufeng is very satisfied with these things. The fishermen are reluctant to eat, and they all want to sell them for money.
She looked up at the sky, looked at the door and muttered: "Strange, why they haven't come back yet, it's already late today?" At midnight last night, her old man and three sons all went to sea, and they should have returned by this time. Just as she was thinking, there was a commotion outside the door. It was the voice of her old man: "Feng'er, come out and help, and call the second and third family too."
Hearing this, the daughters-in-law on both sides of the next door also ran out, Miao Yufeng hurriedly turned around and explained, "Big baby and second baby, take a look at your sister at home." She hurriedly ran out.
Before they reached the entrance of the village, the men in the village came back with baskets of fish, and women and young men from various households also came to help. Everyone had a smile on their faces, but no man in her family was seen.
Miao Yufeng has good legs so she ran to the beach and arrived in a short while. It seems that this time when the men went to sea, they got a full reward. Look at the boats, it's all full of fish that are almost overflowing. The strong laborers in the village are lined up in several teams, and they are sending baskets of fish back to the shore. Several men from her family were also inside, the eldest was organizing people to carry it, and Accountant Zhang was helping to count.
She walked against the crowd, and heard the men in the village saying: "It's really Mazu's blessing, we hadn't been busy for a long time, and we didn't even catch a hair at first. When we rowed the boat back, guess what? Suddenly fist started jumping out of the sea. There are a lot of fish, this must be a big school of fish, hahahaha…"
Miao Yufeng was also very excited and couldn't help reciting Buddha in her heart. The fishermen's business depends on God's food. Sometimes they can't catch a fish in ten days and half a month, but sometimes luck comes their way. She has been living in Taoyuan Village for 20 or 30 years, and she has never seen so many fish caught once!
Needless to say, these fish are all money. After the reform and opening up, life is getting better!
All the men, women and children in the village went into battle, and it took an hour to bring all the fish back to the village. Going out to sea to fish is a dangerous job, and it must rely on collective strength. The harvest also belongs to the collective. As long as someone in the family goes out to sea, they can finally get a share.
In front of such a big harvest, no matter how tired you are, you will forget it. Except for the elementary school still in class, people from other villages come out to help, slaughter, pickle, and dry. The yards of each household are all covered with densely packed fish.
This kind of harvest made everyone happy. No one was willing to eat it by themselves. They all came to the old Feng's house and asked Feng Yimin: "Village Chief, when will we ship it out for sale?"
Feng Yimin had already made up his mind, and whoever came he would say this: "Accountant Zhang has already calculated the numbers. When the fish is marinated, he will organize everyone to transport it to the provincial capital. It will take a day to come and go, don't worry. When you do your best, go back and wait patiently."
But he was a little worried in private, and after eating, he said to his family: "The road is not easy to walk, it will take seven or eight hours to go out of the mountain, and it will take another seven or eight hours to come back, otherwise our village It's so close to the provincial capital, if there is a way to transport it out, fresh goods are more valuable than dry goods."
"I've been here for so many years, isn't that what it is?" Miao Yufeng sat on the edge of Xiao MengMeng's cradle, rocking the fan of the leaves back and forth, driving away a mosquito from time to time, and answered nonchalantly.
Feng Yimin didn't speak for a while, only frowned and thought to himself, Taoyuan Village is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and only one side is the mountain, but it is this mountain that blocks the way. , you can take off a layer of skin when you go out.
Now that the reform and opening up has taken place, as the village head, he also wants to lead the people in the village to become rich. And after having a daughter, he felt that his responsibility was heavier.
Feng Yimin looked at Mengmeng's big eyes, such beautiful eyes, would he be trapped in this small fishing village for the rest of her life, unable to see the outside world?
As soon as he thought of this, Feng Yimin was full of energy, and determined to say: "If you want to be rich, build roads first. Look at Mengmeng, it doesn't matter if we are in this generation, we can't let the younger generation have no way out, no matter how hard it is, I will. The road has to be repaired."
The old man Feng, who had been sitting next to him and didn't speak, finally couldn't hold his breath. He had been the village chief all his life, and he once thought about building roads, but how is it so easy in reality? He couldn't help but be reminded: "Yimin, building a road is not something that can be done by talking. There are dozens of mountains in Longling behind our village, and the people in the village can't do it alone."
"Hey..." Feng Yimin couldn't help sighing, looking at his daughter's smart eyes, he seemed to comfort himself and said, "Mengmeng, do you think Dad can repair the road?"
What answered him was Mengmeng's "kakakaka" laughter.