Waiting at the
XuanWuMenDong bus stop, I could not help shivering with cold. I had waited for
the No.T4-bus for at least half an hour, while approximately five No. 7-buses
which brought me to that bus stop had passed by.
The day before,
the weather forecast reported that it would be -4℃~4℃.
Quite nice! I felt lucky. But was it really that nice?
Why was it so
cold? Had the weather forecast report made a mistake? Or did my feeling go
wrong? I could not stop shivering and my feet became senseless. Looking up at
the grey sky, I could do nothing but just sigh.
I was going to a
shop to fetch my hairdryer, which I had ordered from the internet. I had
finished the payment using online banking. Mostly in this case, people would
wait at home for the courier to bring him the goods. However, I intended to
argue myself into believing that I went to the shop not because I wanted to
save that 8yuan of freight, but to have a look at the shop and see whether it
deserve further “cooperation”.
Why did I buy the
hairdryer from the internet, while it could be seen on the shelves of all super
markets? Why did I keep my little room in a simplest decoration? Why did I do
the cooking every day?
I could, anyhow,
find a reason for everything I did. I liked simple decoration, especially when I
was not determined about where I would be the next month. I cooked because I
had a light taste which could only be satisfied by my own.
However, someone
could easily lay bare my lie. “You are just niggardly with money.”
He-he…yes, I am
merely a niggardly woman; I have been a slave to money…I have been used to economize
on money since I have a poor family and that I am a good girl. But I have grown
up now, I earn my own money now, yet I still have to save on money. What a
shamed…
I know that money doesn’t
grow more by saving, but grows more by making. However, sometimes if you could
not make something grow more, you have to stop it from getting less.
I wrote this
article, to some extent, to comfort myself in mind. Sometimes I really feel
ashamed when my friends kid with me about my penny pinching.
What’s more, I am a little worried that I will be still too niggardly in
future even when I become a millionaire. Ha-ha…
“What does your family do
for a living? Plant banana?” Someone asked me when he knew that I am the child
of a farmer in Guangdong.
Ha-ha, it seemed that his
knowledge about farm produce in Guangdong
was nothing but banana.
Well, I am not going to
introduce how many species of fruits Guangdong
produces, because you can easily find the information from the internet.However,
his question brought me back to my childhood in which those fruit trees waving
in the wind.
Our village is very small,
with 8 households still living in it and several households moved overseas and
one or two moved to the city or other developed district of China. Of the 8
households, 5 are in a big family, including my family and other 4 being my
uncles’; 2 are also brothers in another family. Really small, isn’t it?
I love banana, but the fact
is we don’t plant banana.
It is a self-sufficient
village with just a few scattered farmlands to plan rice biannually. We also
plant peanuts or sweet potatoes on the hills at the back of the village. There
are other crops such taros, corns, all kinds of beans and vegetables. The
climate is suitable for many kinds of the crops in the world, but the villagers
probably don’t want to bother themselves by planting excess farm produce, so we
don’t live on farm land. Most of the middle-age men find jobs as construction
workers in the town.
Sorry, I had talked too much
about non-banana…
We don’t plant banana, but
when I was young, there were many plantain(芭蕉,大蕉,板蕉)
trees. Plantaindoesn’t taste as good as banana.
But perhaps it is much easier to bear fruits, so they could be seen all along
the roadside of the village. By the roadside there were also longan(龙眼) trees, leechee(荔枝)trees, Chinesewampee fruit(黄皮) trees, guava(番石榴树) and so on. However, they were not planted by
the villagers, but grew by themselves after people throwing their seeds onto
the soil.
Sadness
aroused when the road was rebuilt. It had to be broadened so all the fruit
trees had to be cut down and removed or buried. It was really a pity because
the trees not only bore delicious fruits but also contributed a wonderful
paradise for us children. I missed one of the big longan trees so much
that I could not find any other one produces tastier longans, and I
missed the little green house the small guava tree and the vines set up
for us. By the way, I remembered there was a nice species of guava
alongside a brook by the farm land, but, god, it was also be killed! I wonder
whether it was because they adults were angry at us for as soon as the guava
became ripe, they were all picked off by us children.
Concerning
the fruits in the village, I would also like to talk about grape. My
fatherhad ever planted a green grape tree in front of our house.
After several years it bore grapes! Years later more and more grapes appeared
on the tree, and the vine became thicker and thicker. It was the only one in
the village, so it was popular. Every year we would brought some to my
grandmother’s; and when some distinguished visitor (who would give children big
red packets) came they were treated our special delicious grape. I suggested planting more grape trees utilizing one piece of our farm
land but my father didn’t adopt it. And the grape tree died a few years ago due
to neglect of maintenance! What a shame!
Frankly speaking, my parents
are not very good at farming. I had always thought that vegetables and fruit grew
much better in other family’s land than in ours. However, we did do well in
maintaining the pawpaw(木瓜)and sugarcane(甘蔗).
Now being far away from my
hometown, I often struggle in my mind for a long time to decide whether to buy the
expensive fresh fruits. Oh, I miss the fruits in my hometown so much…