A few days ago, I took my son back to my hometown. During the meal, my mother made noodle soup with eggs and cicadas in it.

My son couldn't get used to the peculiar fragrance of the cicada, so he gave me all the cicadas, but he still couldn't drink his bowl of soup.

His mother quickly grabbed a handful of brown sugar and put it in his bowl, and said, "It will taste better if you sprinkle some sugar on it. When your dad was eating when he was a child, when he couldn't eat anymore, I would grab a handful of sugar or put a few drops of sesame oil on it.

He was eating so enthusiastically!" My son looked back at me curiously, as if he was laughing at me, and he finished the meal just for a handful of brown sugar or a few drops of sesame oil!

There is no bottom line in being a human being, right?

Is it too easy to be bribed?

In fact, dear son, you don’t have to doubt my bottom line loyalty!

Now that I think about it, I was also deceived by your grandma’s “lies”!

Seeing my son full of doubts about me, I suddenly remembered my childhood, where there were too many "lies" from my mother that affected me!

I believe that if you are reading this article, you will have a feeling in your heart after reading it!

Just like the meal just now, it wouldn't be a bad thing if my mother could coax the rice into my stomach with kind words and some sweetness.

However, sometimes, I really don’t want to eat, and trying to persuade me doesn’t work.

People often say: If you don’t eat the toast, you will be punished with a drink!

My mother was very reasonable and asked me to finish my meal obediently.

Because at that time I always had leftover rice and egg-sized steamed buns. If I didn’t finish them, they would be wasted. I even secretly threw the steamed buns into the firewood pile without my mother noticing.

Or dump the leftovers into the manure pit where farmyard manure accumulates.

I am born in the 1970s. If you also lived in the 1970s, you will deeply understand the importance of food and clothing.

At that time, although we farmers in eastern Henan were not starving or freezing, we were still struggling with food and clothing. Throughout the year, we could only eat pure wheat flour buns during the Spring Festival, and the rest were corn flour and red taro noodles!

I still remember that I once ate steamed buns made from elm leaves!

Material life is difficult, and housewives are careful about food.

Even more reluctant to let us children who have never done anything difficult go to waste!

In order to prevent me from secretly throwing away some leftover steamed buns, my mother often likes to give me some sweet treats. If she still can't stop me, my mother will tell me a scary-sounding proverb: "The leftover steamed buns turn into little monkeys; leftover steamed buns turn into little monkeys;

"Fan Heer, turn into a donkey!" Maybe now you are full of expectations for the cute little donkey and the lively little monkey, and find it super fun.

That's because you and I don't live in the same era.

The donkeys in my memory were all used to pull mills and plow fields!

Especially the donkeys in Lamo have "donkey eyesores" on their heads that cover both sides of their eyes, so that they don't feel like they are spinning in circles, and they naively think they are walking in a straight line!

On the ground outside the stone mill, a circle of deep pits was made by the donkeys that kept turning in circles.

Once it slackens, the master's whip will fall on it, causing the donkey to moan miserably.

The donkey was so tired that it was dripping with water. In the end, the owner only gave him a few handfuls of wheat straw to satisfy his hunger. I was scared when I saw it. Who wants to become a beaten and frustrated donkey?

And that little monkey, in the 1970s, there was no electricity in the countryside. Sometimes to watch a movie, he would have to run several miles to a neighboring village!

Not to mention having television, cultural life is extremely poor.

Sometimes, after waiting for a year and a half, a monkey player comes to the village, and the whole village comes out, and even people from neighboring villages come to watch the fun.

In order to win everyone's applause, monkey players always make the monkeys perform various actions.

If it fails, raise the whip and beat the monkey hard. The poor little monkey will be beaten until it grins, jumps up and down, and screams from time to time.

It’s so chilling to watch!

Let me turn into a little monkey and a donkey to be beaten?

This is something I would never dare to imagine!

what to do?

Isn’t it okay if we don’t become them?

Therefore, after I was frightened by my mother's words, I never dared to leave any buns.

Even now, every time when the meal is over and there are some steamed buns and rice left on the table, I am reluctant to let my wife throw it away!

Loosen your belt and eat as much of it as you can!

Of course, now I will no longer believe that I will turn into a donkey or a monkey and get whipped. In fact, the most fundamental thing is that it is true that I am not willing to waste food!

Sometimes I jokingly say to my wife: "I can't lose weight. First, the food you cook is so delicious, and second, the leftovers at home are forcing me to gain weight."

My wife scolded me: "Why don't you say you're a coward?" Dear wife, don't call me a coward, okay?

Our current life can be considered stable and prosperous. Is it true that I have a natural hunger for food, as the writer Mo Yan said?

I don’t think so. Maybe I still have a phobia in my heart, “Oh! You didn’t go hungry for 58 years! Aren’t I afraid of being poor?” I always laugh at myself!

In our hometown, life in 1958 was synonymous with the most difficult life. According to the elders, many people starved to death at that time!

In fact, I was born in the 1970s. In life at that time, although there was no such thing as starvation, eating "good noodles" was still a luxury!

And I didn’t dare to leave any steamed buns or rice with me. This was a habit that was frightened by my mother’s “lies” about turning into a donkey, foal and monkey!

Not long after I graduated from college and started working, I started selling Bafang sesame oil. Then I got married and had children. Now my children have graduated from junior high school.

I am over forty years old. Although I have already established a foothold in the city, my household registration and ID card belong to the Liangyuan Baiyun Office.

But I still think that Yucheng Mangzhongqiao is my home, where I, a "city dweller", have my parents!

More than twenty years of urban life has not changed my identity.