loyal dog becomes cat

After Ma Ke's mother and son moved out of the Ma's mansion, they lived in a small farm on the west side of the village. The two main houses were occupied by Ma Ke and Mrs. Ma respectively. Although they were not big, they were all of brick and wood structure, and there were three thatched huts used as guest kitchens. In the eyes of ordinary farmers, the firewood house is considered a middle-class family, but it is far worse than the previous situation of the Ma family.

The dining room is located in the kitchen, with a low pine table and four small wooden stools. Marco has been bedridden since time travel, and today is the first time he has dinner with his family.

There were four steaming bowls of rice porridge with glutinous rice grits on the table, plus a boiled egg, Huajian pointed to the seat where the boiled egg was placed, and said, "Brother, sit here."

Ma Ke usually has a boiled egg every morning. I thought everyone had it. When I saw him today, I realized that he was the only one. Looking around, I saw a small bamboo basket beside the stove. There are a dozen or so eggs left. Thinking about how difficult the family is now, everyone is reluctant to eat a few eggs, so he keeps this precious lump alone.

As the only man in the family, he was supposed to take care of his family, but unexpectedly, he had to be taken care of by the old lady and the little girl. Ma Ke felt very uncomfortable for a while, sighed, sat on the stool, and said, "Sit too, mother Woolen cloth?"

At this time, two half-year-old ladies walked in. Mrs. Ma is supposed to be less than fifty this year, but maybe because of a big change in her family and her son's serious illness, she looks a bit old-fashioned, and her appearance is also very ordinary. She has nothing to do with Ma Ke. The similarity is that Nanny Wu, who is helping her, is very energetic, and looks about in her early forties.

"Mother." Ma Ke stood up and called respectfully. Mrs. Ma was very happy to see that her son was able to get out of bed and eat today. After saying "hey", she sat down, took Ma Ke's hand and said: "A Ke, these God has suffered for you, do you feel better today?"

Ma Ke's mother passed away early, and he never enjoyed any maternal love. Looking at the deep wrinkles on Mrs. Ma's forehead now, he couldn't help feeling admiring, and said sincerely, "Mother, my son was ignorant before, so I made you worry about it."

Unexpectedly, after a serious illness, his son's whole personality seemed to have changed. Mrs. Ma burst into tears of relief, tapped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, and said, "Ake, your father doesn't know when he will come back. Mother is incompetent. I feel wronged." is you."

Although everyone thinks that Master Ma is dead, Madam Ma doesn't think so. If you want to see people, you need to see corpses. As long as you don't find the body for a day, Master Ma may still be alive.

Ma Ke shook his head lightly, and said: "Mother, where are you talking, it is the son's responsibility to support the family, and I have grown up now, and if my father is not at home, you still have me."

Regardless of whether her son has the ability to support the family, the mother is naturally very happy after hearing these words. Mrs. Ma patted the back of Ma Ke's hand and said: "It's good if you have the heart, take your time and raise him first." Let’s talk about your health, come, let’s eat.”

After drinking half of the millet porridge, Mrs. Ma picked up the egg in front of Ma Ke, and said suddenly: "A Ke, do you know how our Ma family got rich?"

Ma Ke shook his head, and Mrs. Ma said slowly while peeling the shell: "I think back then, the Ma family was even poorer than it is now. Your great-grandfather once helped someone carry the corpse, and the owner gave him an egg, and later the egg turned into a chicken. Chickens turned into sheep, sheep turned into cows, and later on, your father traded the flocks of cows and sheep into skins and sold them to the Gaoxiang people, and we are where we are today."

Ma Ke nodded, Madam Ma stroked his hair, and said: "Look, now we still have five acres of land, a yard, and grain and eggs. As long as you take good care of yourself, we can live in peace and stability. One day, the egg will lay the chicken, and the chicken will turn into a cow and sheep, and the good times will come back.”

Hearing Mrs. Ma's simple but wise encouragement, Ma Ke's eyes were a little sore, he nodded heavily, and said, "Mother, don't worry, my son has written down everything you said."

After breakfast, Mrs. Ma went back to the room with Nanny Wu. After a while, the creaking sound of the spinning wheel was heard in the room. Since moving here, Mrs. Ma has started spinning to subsidize the family, although the income is very small , but better than nothing.

Ma Ke stood in the yard for a while, called Huajian and said, "Take me to the fields."

At the beginning of September, the autumn wind was bleak and the sweet-scented osmanthus was fragrant. Although it was not as beautiful as spring, it had a special autumn feel. Walking on the country path, Ma Ke felt much more cheerful.

The five mu of land that the steward helped them save was all good Sichuan land, with fertile soil and close to the irrigation canal, but at this time there were no crops growing in the field, only some dilapidated corn stalks were piled up in the field, and the land was left uncultivated .

Ma Ke walked around the field ridge and asked Huajian, "Why is the land deserted?"

Hua Jian said: "The corn was harvested last month, and now it is about to enter winter. After the frost, the weather will turn cold. After a while, the land may be frozen, so it is not easy to plant again."

Ma Ke looked around and saw that the adjacent fields were all planted with winter wheat, and only his own was left uncultivated, so he realized that Huajian was just comforting himself.

"The food at home is enough to last until next year's autumn harvest, brother, don't worry." Huajian knew that Ma Ke had already seen the clues, and explained, "We didn't grow wheat after the autumn, mainly because there was no labor at home, and we had to wait for a while. If you can't hire workers, then..."

Marko sighed and said, "I see, let's go back first."

The master and the servant walked home along the ridge of the field, and just after turning a corner, they suddenly saw two men coming from the opposite side. The mature and oily face.

"Yo, isn't this Huajian girl?" The man's eyes were pretty good, his voice was like a bell, "Who is the girl behind you? Could it be your lady?"

"Brother, he is the son of the patriarch Deng Qi, and his name is Deng Youcai." Hua curled her lips when she saw these two people, and said to Ma Ke in a low voice, "The one behind is his younger brother, Deng Youqing."

It turned out to be the son of the patriarch who took advantage of the fire to rob, Ma Ke frowned.

"Brother Deng." After approaching, Huajian gave Deng Youcai a little blessing, and Deng Youcai glanced at Huajian, and his eyes stuck to Ma Ke's face, with a surprised and wretched look in his eyes, and said: "Oh , this is the sister of the Ma family, she is so beautiful, no wonder Master Ma is a baby, she has never seen it since she was raised in the mansion."

Ma Ke knew that he had a troublesome face, and he was paralyzed at the moment. He lowered his eyes and said nothing. Deng Youcai saw that he was silent, and thought he was shy. He salivated and took a step closer, saying: "Sister Ma, you Deng Youcai Big brother, I am the most enthusiastic person, now that your father is gone, and there is no male in the family, if you have any heavy work, just ask, I will definitely not stand idly by."

Ma Ke saw that although he was fat and big, he was obviously full of flesh, and his clothes were neat and tidy. He really didn't look like work material, so he gave him a cold look and said perfunctorily: "Thank you, no need .” He tugged at Huajian’s sleeve and said, “Go home.”

Relying on their father being the patriarch, the Deng brothers ran wild in the village on weekdays. Hua Jian knew that they were not easy to mess with, and was afraid that Ma Ke would offend them, so he hurriedly laughed and said, "Brother Deng, Brother Deng, my lady is just recovering from a serious illness. , I have to go back early to rest and leave first.”

Seeing that Ma Kehua left quickly and walked a long way, Deng Youcai just looked away, and said to his younger brother Deng Youqing, "Hey, it is said that the third daughter of Liu Niang's family is handsome. In my opinion, compared with this girl from Ma's family, she is simply blind." house sparrow."

Deng Youqing smiled slyly with his mouth crooked, and said, "Brother, don't you just fall in love with her? You are engaged to the daughter of shopkeeper Zhao of the Dahong Grain Store in Huanzhou City, so don't think about her as soon as possible." .”

Deng Youcai grinned, and said, "It's strange for a big man to have three wives and four concubines, who said he's going to marry her as his wife."

When Ma Ke and Hua Jian returned home, they looked around the houses and saw that there were still a few tanks of grain in the woodshed. Although there were not many, they should barely be able to eat until next summer's harvest.

In addition, there are many sacks full of soybeans in Huajian's room, which are piled up high and occupy half of the room.

"Why are there so many soybeans at home?" Marco asked in surprise.

"The people in the bank took away all the corn and wheat when collecting debts, but the leftover soybeans are not wanted." Hua Jian sighed, "If it weren't for the housekeeper's good words, I'm afraid even the grain in the firewood room would have been replaced by soybeans. "

Soybeans are a good thing. Although they are not as practical as wheat and corn, they can be regarded as cash crops. Besides, Mrs. Ma's complexion seems to coincide with menopause. Drinking more soy milk to supplement estrogen is of great benefit to the body.

Ma Ke opened a bag of soybeans and took a look. Although it was a little small, it was still fresh. The squeezed soybean milk should be good, so he had an idea and asked Huajian again: "Is there any tofu seller here?"

"Tofu? Yes." Huajian said, "Deng Liuniang's family in Zhuangli makes tofu. There is a stall in Huanzhou City. Her third daughter is handsome. People in the city call her 'Tofu Xishi'. "

Ma Ke had an idea in his mind, tied his pockets and patted the dust on his hands, and said, "Go to Deng Liuniang's house to buy some tofu in the afternoon, you can buy as many as she has, and you can buy as little as possible."

After Hana agreed, Ma Ke asked again, "How much money do you have at home?"

Huajian thought for a while, and said: "I'm afraid there is not much money, the last time I hired a doctor for you, I paid for the consultation fee only when I became a wife and a crested hairpin."

It seems that the situation at home is indeed not optimistic.

Ma Ke frowned and went back to the room, sitting at the table thinking hard about how to get rich and become well-off. After a while, Liu Xiaodong came out from nowhere, walked leisurely to Ma Ke's feet, and saw that he didn't respond, and then He jumped onto the table along the stool, squatted in front of Ma Ke and yelled "meow" a few times, trying to get his attention.

Ma Ke nodded his nose and said, "Liu Xiaodong, why do you think I want to study psychology? It would be great if I went to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences."

"Meow." The kitten raised its front paw and gently scratched his hand with the pad, as if to encourage him.

"It would be great if Liu Xiaodong was here." Ma Ke said again, "I heard that their company doesn't use soil to grow vegetables, and the output is always high. The bell pepper he brought me last time tasted like a tomato. magic."

The kitten tilted its head, wiggled its left ear, and shook its mustache, triumphantly.

"But I won't give up." Ma Ke clenched his fists, "I can do other things if I don't know how to grow vegetables. The tofu I ordered before even Liu Xiaodong said it was delicious."

"Meow." The kitten nodded in affirmation, with a serious expression.

"So I want to be a bean curd Xi Shi too!" Ma Ke smashed the table, thought for a while and changed his mind, "No, it's the bean curd prince!"

"Meow." The corner of Kitten's mouth twitched, as if he felt that his name was a bit ridiculous.

"Don't laugh!" Ma Ke held its small face and shook it from side to side, "Hey, Xiaodong, you are also part of the family now, we have to work hard together."

Kitten Liu Xiaodong suddenly had a bad premonition, stepped back, and looked at Ma Ke warily.

"You see that you are idle all day long, you only know how to eat, and you don't even catch a mouse. This is wrong." Ma Ke said seriously, "Come to Minger and let Huajian find you a big cat as a teacher, and you can also learn to catch a mouse." Rat."

Liu Xiaodong shook his head violently, strongly objecting to putting it in a pile with other cats.

"Aren't you willing to have a teacher? Then it's fine if you're willing to be self-taught." Ma Ke is open to discussing, "Well, from today on, you can no longer sleep in my bed, and we'll talk about it when you catch a mouse."

No way...Liu Xiaodong, the kitten, put on a bitter face, raised his head to the sky and screamed: "Woo..."