1
There is a chestnut tree in the mountain behind my house. It is very strong. Every autumn when the chestnuts mature, the chestnuts on the tree flutter in the wind. From time to time, one falls and hits the ground, "pop" "The sound also hit my heart, making my mouth water.
When I was a child, there were almost no snacks at home. The most delicious meal in my memory was when my sister and I grabbed a handful of salted beans from a jar, scooped up a bowl of well water, and then drank the salted beans with a mouthful of well water. We actually ate them with gusto, no less than now. My daughter tasted the ice cream. In addition, there are some wild fruits and fruits from the countryside.
At that time, there were no peach trees, orange trees, or plum trees at home. Of course, this chestnut tree did not belong to my home, so this aroused my appetite even more. Because every autumn, the owner of this chestnut tree - the grandma who lives in a mud-brick house across the street, will smile and call me for help, beat it with a stick, then pick it up together, smash it with a stone, and then smash it open to reveal the When the chestnuts were golden, she would generously give me a few.
I couldn’t wait to bite it open, and there was a crunching sound, and the fragrant and sweet chestnut meat was fragrant between my teeth. I didn’t care about the stone hitting my hand and the chestnut thorn pricking my hand. Feeling of pain. After finishing her work, this grandma would limp again and bring a bowl of chestnuts to my house.
This kind of preciousness reminds me of when I was in elementary school, my math teacher said that he was lucky: We were caught up in three years of natural disasters and had nothing to eat, so we ran into the sweet potato fields that had been plowed by others. , if you can pick up a few sweet potato roots after searching for a day, you can be happy for several days.
In my impression, this grandma was always smiling and limping - because she stepped on moss when fetching water from the pond, the sole of her foot slipped and fell on the stone slab. She had no money to go to the hospital, so she lay down at home. Half a year ago, on a sunny and warm winter afternoon, she moved a stool and sat on her street, looking at me and grinning.
She thought she would live a long life, but she never thought that she would soon suffer from Alzheimer's disease and often have hallucinations. She always suspected that her old man was having an affair with the grandmother next door. On a winter morning, He hanged himself with a rope made of straw. At that time, I was still in the fifth grade of elementary school.
This chestnut tree and the fragrance of chestnut slowly faded from my memory.
2
Studying is very difficult, and my family's financial situation is average, so there is no extra pocket money for me to eat snacks.
When I was a kid, in order to trick my mother into giving me 50 cents, I went to school to buy some snacks. When I was eating in the morning, I pretended to have a stomachache and said I couldn’t eat. Without thinking, my mother put the rice in a mouthwash cup for me, covered it with a newspaper, tied a rubber band around the cup, and asked me to take it to school to eat.
There is no microwave in the school, and there is no equipment to heat rice. The rice brought to school has long been cold and tastes extremely bad. So after that time, I will never think like this again. .
Fortunately, my studies have been relatively smooth. I went to a key high school and a key university, and then graduated and went to work in Beijing. With a salary, you can enjoy delicious food. At that time, I was in love with my girlfriend. On weekends, we often rode bicycles to walk through the streets. When we passed a street roasted seed shop, we smelled a fragrance. I looked up: roasted chestnuts with sugar.
I bought a bag and ate one. Haha, the taste was completely different from when I ate it raw when I was a child. It was fragrant, sweet, pink and glutinous. I wasn’t very good at falling in love at that time, no. Knowing how to be humble, I put one after another into my mouth and finished the entire bag of roasted chestnuts in an instant. My girlfriend stood next to me and laughed and scolded me: Are you so greedy? It’s like I’ve never eaten anything delicious.
Later in the morning when I was buying vegetables, I saw a vendor shouting: Miyun chestnuts, the most delicious chestnuts! nb7i
My girlfriend had an idea and suddenly remembered something: When I was a child, my grandma steamed meat with chestnuts, which tasted super delicious.
Since you like eating chestnuts so much, I'll cook a meal for you, but I don't know if I can make it.
Grandma has passed away. She called her mother and asked about the basic method. We searched online again for how to quickly and easily peel off the hard shells of chestnuts, then bought a piece of pork belly, cut it up and steamed it in a pot.
The first time was not successful. The chestnuts were half-cooked and had no sweet and sticky taste. Put it on the pot and steam it again, this time for a longer time. When it comes out, the pork belly melts in your mouth, the chestnuts are glutinous and sweet, and the steamed soup is salty and sweet. Compared with the sugar-fried chestnuts bought outside, it has more The first layer of taste is the sweetness and honey of love.
Later, every autumn when the chestnuts were ripe, we would make this dish. I was responsible for peeling the chestnuts, and my girlfriend was responsible for making steamed chestnut meat. After eating for two more autumns, we got the marriage certificate.
When I returned to my hometown, my mother led me upstairs and told me to show me a good thing. In the dark corridor, there is a basket, which contains half a basket of chestnuts with thorns peeled off. I was surprised: Where did so many chestnuts come from?
The mother said that after her son inherited the chestnut tree at the grandma’s house across the street, her son was reluctant to waste the chestnuts on the tree. He climbed up the tree with a stick and beat it. As a result, the sole of his foot slipped and he fell from the tree. I fell from a tree several meters high and heard the sound of bones breaking when I hit the ground. I couldn't get up for a long time. However, because my family was poor, I didn't go to the hospital for treatment. I was taken to my home to recuperate for half a month and gradually recovered. He recovered as tenaciously and miraculously as his mother. But since then, he has not cared much about the chestnut tree. Every autumn when the chestnuts are ripe, everyone can pick them up.
My mother picked up so many chestnuts after hearing me talk about the deliciousness of steamed chestnut meat on the phone.
3
I studied in my hometown, went to Beijing after graduation, and returned to my hometown from Beijing to work many years later. When I grew up and became a father, my family members gradually grew older.
In the past two years, my grandfather, second uncle, and uncle have all left this world. When my second uncle passed away last year, I stood in front of my second uncle's house and saw that the loquat trees, orange trees, peach trees, jujube trees, chestnut trees, sycamore trees, and cypress trees that he planted with his own hands had all grown up. Later, I heard the old man say that the house He couldn't plant cypress trees in front of his house, so he cut down the cypress trees. He also heard people said that there couldn't be a big tree in front of his house, so he asked people to cut down the blue plane tree.
But not long after, he contracted cancer and passed away from this world earlier than his grandmother. My mother said: That sycamore tree should not be cut down, as it would destroy the feng shui, otherwise my second uncle would not have passed away so early. Everyone in the village knew that my second uncle's health was one of the best in the whole village. No one thought that he would die in such good health in just a month.
Not long ago, my grandmother also left this world. Dozens of her children and grandchildren rushed home to attend her funeral. This time, the oranges were not yet ripe, the dates were already red and off the branches, and the loquats were secretly sold by neighbors in the village. Only the chestnuts on the chestnut tree were still there, hanging alone on the branches, fluttering in the wind.
Several children rushed over excitedly, knocked the chestnuts down with sticks, then smashed them with rocks and stepped on them with shoes like I did when I was a child. Finally, a piece of chestnut meat rolled out, and several children fought for it. The ghosts cry and the wolves howl. Two nephews joined in, snatched several pieces, and brought a few to me. I took one, peeled it off, and put it in my mouth. It was still crisp, but tasteless and tasted like chewing wax.
Grandma’s cemetery was chosen opposite the second uncle’s house. This was the place she chose during her lifetime. She said she would help her second uncle look after the house after her death. Later, the uncles found a Feng Shui master, and the Feng Shui master also said that this was a treasure land with mountains behind and water in front. When the sun comes out in the early morning, the glow is brilliant, and the sunlight shines down from the trees, infinitely soft.
When my grandma went up the mountain, she had to pass by her second uncle’s grave. I don’t know if my grandma knew that her second uncle had passed away before her before she died, because her family kept telling her that her second uncle had gone away for medical treatment. Recuperating at my cousin's house.
When I saw the overgrown weeds in front of my second uncle’s grave, and thought of my uncle’s poor, diligent, honest, and kind life, and of my grandma’s white-haired man giving away her black-haired woman, I followed my grandma’s coffin and burst into tears.
My aunt cried the most sadly because my mother had 6 brothers and sisters, my second uncle passed away, my eldest uncle, third uncle, and fourth uncle were all working and settling down in other places, and my mother had followed me to live in the city. Now that grandpa and grandma have left, only aunt stays in her hometown, as lonely as the chestnut on the chestnut tree.