Reading

  It was getting dark soon, and the road outside was gradually blurred.

  After waiting anxiously, Song Laoliu and his wife finally came back with an empty bucket. After

  putting the bucket back in the house, Qian's wife said to Wu: "I think that old woman is deliberately making trouble for me. There is clearly half a tank of water in her water tank. How come there is no water to drink?"

  Wu was stunned for a moment, and thanked Qian's wife: "Thank you so much, sister-in-law and brother, for letting you fetch water for me at this time."

  "What are you thanking me for? In the future, when Samsoon is not at home, you should close the door and lock it early, so that the other party will not order you to do this or that."

  Qian's wife and her husband walked out of the house, turned around and waved to Wu: "Close the door quickly, and tomorrow we will come to learn how to make wood-sucking buds from you."

  "Okay." Wu waited for Qian's wife and her husband to return home before closing the door.

  She frowned and thought for a while, but couldn't figure out why her stepmother-in-law asked her to fetch water at this time.

  When her husband comes back, she will definitely tell him about this.

  She put Chang'an on the kang, put the dishes on the table into the basket, poured some porridge into the cat food bowl, and then fetched water to wash her and Chang'an's faces and feet.

  Lying on the kang, she was patting Chang'an to sleep when she heard a noise outside.

  "Xiuying, open the door, it's me."

  Wu was very surprised and hurried to get off the kang to open the door.

  Song Sanshun walked into the room, dusty and dusty, bringing a chill.

  "Why are you home at this time? Have you eaten?" Wu hurriedly took the basket on her husband's back.

  Song Sanshun: "No."

  "There is a bowl of porridge, I'll heat it up for you." Wu took out two steamed buns from the basket hanging on the beam, and put the steamed buns in the fire pit while boiling the porridge.

  "How is my brother?" The firelight from the stove shone on Wu's face, flickering.

  Song Sanshun scooped water from the water tank to wash his hands and face: "Chonglou is much better. We sent him to Tieniu Town to see a doctor today. The doctor said that there is no big problem and he just needs to go home and recuperate."

  "Then why did you come back so late?" Wu turned the steamed bun over and continued to bake it.

  Song Sanlang wiped his face with a towel: "When I came back today, I met two roe deer. My father-in-law and I caught them and sent them to the market to sell them. By the way, I bought some fine grains for Chonglou to replenish his body, so I came back late."

  "Oh! That's really a coincidence." Wu smiled, took out the baked steamed bun and handed it to her husband: "Eat it while it's hot."

  Song Sanshun took the steamed bun and took a bite, turned around and asked: "Where is Changan?" "He

  slept. He cried a lot before." Wu turned off the stove and served porridge to her husband.

  Song Sanshun took the bowl of porridge and took a sip, and asked: "Who did you quarrel with again? Why are you crying for no reason?"

  Wu then told her about her mother-in-law coming to her in the evening and asking her to fetch water.

  "I don't know what my mother-in-law means. There's water in the water tank at home, but she still asked me to go get some water late at night, saying that my father wants to drink tea."

  Song Sanshun was silent for a moment, and said, "If she comes to ask you to do something next time, ignore her."

  "Yes." Wu nodded.

  Song Sanshun drank the porridge, and then looked at the basket of wood stalks next to him, and said, "I have nothing to do tomorrow, I'll go buy a wooden drill and drill holes for the wood stalks. It's not good to always borrow from others."

  "Tomorrow, Sister Qian and her husband will come to help, so you can buy two."

  Wu picked up some food for her husband and said, "You and Brother Song Liu will drill holes at home, and Sister Qian and I will go to the mountain to pick more bracken. This can be stored after blanching, and I want to pick more."

  Song Sanshun: "Okay."

  Now is the time of the year when there is not much surplus food at home, and the vegetables in the small vegetable garden have not been planted yet. The vegetables we eat at home rely entirely on wild vegetables.

  But the fresh wild vegetables in early spring cannot be eaten up and cannot be stored. Only bracken and ground vegetables can be stored for a long time.     However, since the light snow after the New Year, it has not rained until now. The ground vegetables grown last year are all dried on the ground and not easy to pick up. Now we can only save more ferns.

  The couple talked for a while and then went to bed to rest.

  At this time, Chang'an had already fallen asleep and was dreaming. In the dream, she was squatting by the pond and imitating the crowing

  of a rooster for the little goldfish. The little goldfishes laughed non-stop when they heard the little baby imitating the crowing of a rooster.

  A burst of water drops hit them, and Chang'an smiled happily.

  There were so many small beads this time, she stuck her butt out and tried her best to pick them up on the ground.

  Suddenly, the little golden fish sighed, and a thin and weak voice came over: "Chang'an, we are not asking you to learn to crow like a rooster, but to learn to read and do things. As long as you learn a lot of knowledge and skills, you can do what you want to do and save the people you want to save in the future."

  Chang'an stopped and frowned, saying: "But my aunt said that I am a girl and my grandfather will not read to me."

  The little golden fish was silent for a while, waved and threw out a book: "In this case, I will teach you to recognize words."

  Chang'an opened his eyes wide and was stunned by the book that appeared in front of him.

  This book is very big, and the pages turn automatically. There are all kinds of beautiful pictures in it.

  Chang'an forgot to pick up the little beads and lay on the ground to look at the pictures in the book.

  It's really beautiful, with little people, flowers, birds, mountains and rocks, white clouds in the sky, and butterflies and bees.

  Huh? This bee actually moved, flying from this flower to that flower.

  Chang'an was surprised and stretched out his little hand to pinch the butterfly, but the butterfly flew away and disappeared into the book.

  "Don't play, recognize words with me first." The little goldfish's tail slapped the water surface, splashing a piece of water.

  Chang'an immediately came back to his senses, blinking his eyes and looking at the little goldfish.

  "Turn the book to the first page and read with me: Heaven and earth are dark and yellow, the universe is vast and boundless." The little goldfish's voice was stern.

  Chang'an was frightened and had to follow her.

  Every time she read a word, the words on the book jumped as if alive.

  Chang'an was even more surprised and tried to press the word with his little hand.

  The little goldfish slapped its tail again and said seriously: "Today I will only teach you four words. If you can't learn them, don't come to see us in the future."

  Chang'an was startled and immediately sat up straight, his eyes fixed on the four enlarged words on the book.

  "Read with me: Heaven, Earth, Dark, Yellow." The little goldfish turned into a teacher, slapping its tail and reading the words loudly.

  Chang'an immediately followed and said: "Heaven, Earth, Dark, Yellow."

  "Remember these words, I will test you next time." The little goldfish said, and disappeared into the water.

  Fortunately, the words in this book can make sounds by themselves. Whenever Chang'an forgot how to read, he would poke the words and they would make sounds to remind him. It was magical.

  It was unknown how long it took, until Chang'an began to feel tired, and finally closed the book.

  Chang'an was worried that she would forget these words and would never see the little goldfish again, so she held up her eyelids and picked up all the little beads on the ground.

  When the little seedling in the palm of her hand turned into five leaves, Chang'an finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep on the ground.

  When she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.

  Goudan lay on the kang and looked at her, pinching her little nose with his hand, muttering: "Little girl, go to sleep, an old Taoist priest came down from the South Mountain, wearing a straw hat on his head, a blue jacket on his body, and a piece of wood stuck in his armpit." (End of this chapter)