Tofu maker is the most respectable and polite person in Shencun. He taught me the grand etiquette at the first dinner table.

I was only 6 years old at that time, and someone in the village had a birthday. According to the rules, each family goes to eat alone. Eat three meals that day and breakfast and lunch the next day. There are five meals altogether. Leave me alone for one of the meals. Maybe the adults are busy. Sitting with me is the tofu maker.

Adults have trouble eating, and they have to respect each other for half a day. I finished eating quickly, put chopsticks on the table, lifted my legs and walked out. I want to play.

Tofu brain master stopped me: "big fish, come back, don't run away."

"What's the matter?" Seeing that the tofu machine looked serious, I didn't know what happened and sat back in my seat.

"Eat a good meal, can't throw chopsticks. To this end, put two chopsticks together, hold them with both hands, and turn around from me with the square head facing outward.

When turning, say, slow down, slow down. Chopsticks are best placed horizontally on the bowl, not vertically. It means that you have already eaten and are waiting for someone else. You can't leave an adult behind.

Adults stand up and walk. You take down your chopsticks and put them on the table. This is the rule. You can't go to the table if you don't know the rules. "

Listening to the tofu master's words, everyone at the dinner table nodded: children have to behave themselves from an early age, which is ethical code. You can only become an adult if you know the moral code. Seeing that everyone was so serious, I was so scared that I immediately picked up chopsticks and put them across the bowl. Then I sat down and listened to what they said that I didn't understand until the banquet was over. It was also after this that I discovered that the tofu maker is a serious Fang Zhengzhi person, and he has never been unsmiling. I have seen tofu sellers in other villages, and I shouted "Tofu Oh-"from a distance. He never shouts. He rode slowly on a 28-type "permanent" bicycle, with a big bucket hanging on each side of the back seat.

After riding for a while, he rang the bicycle bell twice. There is no need to ring the bell in a hurry. But as soon as people hear the bell, they know it's the tofu maker.

I often go to the tofu maker's house. His son Butou is my good friend. Just because I was afraid that the tofu maker would attack me, I didn't dare to enter his house. I just knocked on two stones in the distance. When the barrel head hears the noise, it will slip out.

Probably in the second grade of primary school, I once killed a long snake, white and with a bucket head. I heard that snake meat is delicious and I have never eaten it. Two men carried the snake into the wild, picked up branches, made a fire and roasted it with wooden sticks. The branches were not dry enough and the smell of smoke was heavy, which attracted breeders and craftsmen on the pigsty. When the craftsman saw it, he was shocked. He threw the snake aside and stomped us out with a few feet.

The fire that finally started was a roar. I ran away with the bucket head. And my father and the bucket-headed father, the rigid tofu maker, came to see the scene we left behind. The tofu master said, "My bucket head is a troublemaker. He must have started. " Father said, "Don't cover up the big fish, I don't know him yet." He didn't share anything bad. If you don't fight for three days, you will go to the house to uncover the tiles. "Two people, scrambling to blame their son, that they are not justifying a fault. This will save face. Only when you have face can you hold your head high in front of people. As a result, each of us was beaten.

Because of eating snakes, adults have a saying to us, which is called "soulless head", which is similar to "bold fool". The tofu maker said to the bucket head, Stop playing with big fish. Indeed, I am the mastermind of eating snakes, and the bucket head is just helping me.

For these reasons, I don't like this straight bean curd machine very much. It's no use not liking it. You have to ask him for help during the Spring Festival.

Not only my family invited him, but also every family in the village invited him. On New Year's Eve, there are three dishes on the table. I've been like this since I was a kid.

A plate of green vegetable tofu, a plate of big meat bones and a plate of fish. Fish can't be eaten It means "more than one year". You can't move. You should put it away after eating. On the second day of the lunar new year, relatives can only take it out when they visit New Year. Meat and bones are each a big piece. You can't show gluttony after eating. Originally, we chose a big one for our children first. If you stare at it again, mom, dad and even grandpa will give up their piece, which is not good.

You can only eat tofu for these three courses. There is more after eating. Tofu is made at home, and when it is made, it is a vat. One day, soak soybeans in a bucket. Wait for the bucket head to shout "big fish, this is your home."

My mother and I took a bucket of soaked soybeans to his house. There are two rooms in the tofu maker's house where there are guys who make tofu.

Grind soybean milk first. Pour the beans into the grinding eyes with a ladle. My mother and I took a wooden stick to grind. "Slow down, slow down, don't run so fast. You can run. " The tofu maker loosened the skin hole on the top of the mill and shouted at me while letting the water drip down.

After pushing the mill, I am too tired to move a step. This is the job of tofu makers. Two wooden sticks, lying flat in a cross shape, are hung on the roof beam with iron rings. A square thick gauze with four corners tied to the four ends of two sticks makes a bag. Soymilk is poured into this bag. The tofu maker manipulated two wooden sticks and wound them together. White soya-bean milk is fast first and then slow, and flows into the clay pot below. The last thing left in the pocket is bean dregs. Round, one piece.

This bean dregs can't be thrown away. Stay and cook with salt. Porridge can be used as salty food when drinking.

The soybean milk in the jar should be scooped into the cauldron. Generally speaking, a family is just a pot, a real cauldron. The firewood for burning soybean milk should be brought from your own home, and the wife of the tofu master is in charge of the fire. After the soybean milk is cooked, it should be put in a vat, and the tofu maker will order brine.

Littering is the most important thing. Whether this pot of tofu is good or not depends on this link. The bean curd maker holds a spoon with salt water in his left hand and a wooden spoon with a long handle in his right hand, stirring soybean milk and dripping salt water. Stir fast and slow, slowly, the soybean milk in the tank solidifies into tofu pudding, and yellow water can be seen.

"All right!" Shouted the tofu maker.

Next to the soybean milk tank is a square table with edges around it.

There is a wooden trough on the innermost edge, obliquely downward, facing a bucket.

Mom and the tofu chef's wife tore off a large piece of coarse gauze and laid it flat on the table, each holding a corner. The tofu maker scooped the tofu onto the gauze one by one, and when all the spoons were finished, he picked up the four corners of the gauze and tied it in a knot. Cover it with a thick and heavy wood. Put the stone on the wooden cover. Don't touch the stone once it is put away. At this moment, I heard the sound of water dripping into the bucket from the wooden trough. Water is yellow. Only when the water stops flowing completely is it good.

Remove the stone, open the wooden cover and unpack. There is a big piece of tofu in it. The tofu maker pulled out his knife. This knife is specially made. Horizontal knife and vertical knife, the person who makes tofu is like drawing a chessboard. When finished, it is a piece of tofu. At that time, tofu can be taken out and put in a wooden bucket filled with clear water.

The tofu in this bucket will be eaten until the Lantern Festival. I can't wait. When I came home that night, I took out a piece, put it in a bowl, poured soy sauce on it, put it in my mouth with chopsticks, and put it in my mouth.

A few days before the Chinese New Year, the tofu master was busy making tofu for every household in Shencun. Making tofu is entirely voluntary. People in Shencun will invite the tofu maker to have dinner at home any day next year when he is free. This meal should be specially invited to him. He is the chairman. Others, village heads or prestigious elders, or other special people, can only sit in the second place. This is the time when the tofu master has the most face. He doesn't drink at ordinary times, and only drinks two cups at this time. Just two glasses, neither greedy nor drunk.

Tofu makers generally don't drink or smoke. The pipe is very special, long and thick. The ashtray is made of copper, and so is the mouth. Only the chimney in the middle is made of bamboo and torreya grandis. This pipe is one meter long. I don't know what to do with it. Maybe it's because it's magnificent in your hand It's also interesting for tofu master to light a cigarette. Use dry hemp stalks. There are plenty of hemp stalks in the country, and you can pull one out anywhere. Every family grows, performs, spins and weaves hemp. Summer clothes are all made of linen, called summer clothes. Put this hemp stick out, light it on the oil lamp or in the furnace cavity, and take it out. When the open flame blows out, the hemp stick will still be there. A hemp stalk can be used for half an hour. Tobacco leaves are also grown in their own fields, which are of good quality, fragrant and strong. Educated people will use a Zhang Xiaobai paper roll and a cigarette to smoke in their hands. The bean curd machine is packed in a gray cloth bag. If necessary, just squeeze a small ball out of it and put it in the hookah. With a long pipe in his mouth, he reached out and lit it with a hemp pole. When you inhale, smoke first comes out of your nose, then you move the cigarette holder, look up and spit on the void. At this time, the smoke spread overhead, and the tofu maker showed a satisfied smile on his face. Under normal circumstances, after two puffs, the tobacco leaves burn to ashes, and when he blows at the cigarette holder, the ashes will bounce up, draw an arc and fall to the ground. If he doesn't blow, but raises one foot and knocks the cigarette pot on the sole, it means that he has completely finished smoking and is going to get to the point. He knocked off the ash and stuck his pipe in his waist.

The bucket head once stole the bean curd maker's pipe. Tofu maker is busy making tofu, and bucket head and I hide behind the blacksmith's house and smoke. At this time, I went to junior high school with Bucket, and I became more and more friendly and naughty. Tobacco leaves are easy to handle. The blacksmith has them and put them on the small bamboo plaque on the roof to dry. We won't light it with hemp poles, but with matches I stole from the kitchen stove at home. Fill it with tobacco leaves, and I'll give it to him when the bucket ends. He gave me some when I was smoking. They couldn't stop coughing and crying, and then giggled happily. Before the tobacco leaves were completely burnt to ashes, they were knocked out and fell on the nearby haystack. When the haystack was burning, the bucket head and I started running. All this was seen by the mute standing not far away. The haystack caught fire, so he took a copper washbasin from home and knocked hard. The whole village was shocked, carrying brooms and buckets. The fire didn't spread, but it burned to the blacksmith's grass pile.

The head of the bucket was hanged by a bean curd maker with a rope, which I heard later, because I was also hanged by my father's hands tied to the roof beam.

As soon as my father slapped me twice with hemp rope, I was caught by the blacksmith and the craftsman called by my grandfather. When you hit a child, your family can't stop it. It is necessary for outsiders, blacksmiths and masons to be my father's elders. One pulled my father away, and the other untied the rope and put me down.

"This is not murder. You want to kill him. " The blacksmith shouted at my father.

I survived a beating, and my father made me hungry all day. It's just that after this, Butou stopped playing with me. Soon, the two graduated from junior high school. I went to high school in other places, and the bucket head was sent to a factory in Wuxi by the tofu master as a welder.

In the year when I was busy with the college entrance examination, Butou passed away. Bucket head was the same age as me, and he was only 18 years old when he died. It is said that the boiler exploded. Tofu master rushed over, and the factory said that the boiler should not be covered with the lid, so he touched it and fried it. I didn't get any compensation, so I died in vain.

When I came back from Wuxi and arrived at Shencun, it was already after midnight. There is a fire burning at the roadside of the village entrance. Who should throw away cigarette butts soon? Tired of walking, the bean curd maker drew a long pipe from his waist, loaded it with tobacco leaves, leaned down and put the hookah on the fire. I took a few sips, but I couldn't light it. The tofu master was angry and threw the hookah on the fire: "Hit you, you dead thing!" " "

The fire touched the ground and flew a mile away, and it was gone. It turned out to be a ghost fire.

The day after returning home, the tofu master fell ill. I don't know what's wrong, but he doesn't treat it. Sick for two months, dead. The urn on the head of the urn was sent back from Wuxi. Father and son are buried together in the northwest corner behind his house.