Chapter 44 ☆ Share a bed (Part 1)

My childhood memories of the countryside are always filled with cicada chirps. Every summer, the long-lasting cicada chirps become the background music of the countryside. The cicadas that have been buried underground for several years become cicada monkeys that emerge from the soil and climb up the tree trunks. When they climb to a height of more than one person, they break out of their cocoons, leaving a complete cicada shell on the tree trunk. The newly born cicadas climb higher and higher, flying to the top of the tree and joining the chorus.

Every rural child has caught a cicada monkey or a cicada shell. The cicada monkey can add a side dish to the dinner table, and the cicada shell can be praised and sold for money.

Hearing that Cheng Yaoyao was interested in cicada shells, the children suddenly became excited and ran into the woods to look for them.

Cheng Yaoyao followed Goudan curiously to see how he caught them.

Cicada molts are usually not too high, at most one to two meters above the ground on the tree trunk. This year, there was plenty of rain, so there were many cicada molts. Cheng Yaoyao saw a lot of cicada molts stuck on the tree trunk and reached out to pick them off carefully.

There is an idiom “as thin as a cicada’s wing,” which shows how fragile the cicada molt is. An intact cicada molt is valuable and cannot be broken, otherwise, it will not sell for a high price.

Cheng Yaoyao took out the empty lunch box from her bag, put a layer of leaves in it, and then carefully placed all the cicada shells inside. Tiedan slid down from the tree trunk, grabbed a handful of cicada shells, and poured them into Cheng Yaoyao’s lunch box.

Several other children also ran over, each holding a handful of cicada shells. Lin Weimin even took out some cicada shells from his pocket and rushed to put them into Cheng Yaoyao’s lunch box.

“Hey… you can keep them and sell them for money.” Cheng Yaoyao was overwhelmed by the children’s enthusiasm and felt at a loss.

“You take it!” Lin Weimin turned around coolly and climbed another tree.

In less than an hour, the children found nearly two kilograms of cicada shells.

There were only so many cicada shells in the woods, and they had been mostly collected by others in the village before. By almost noon, everyone’s harvest wasn’t very large.

The children then began looking for another delicacy: cicada monkeys.

There are some holes of different sizes on the ground near the tree roots. These are the holes that the cicada monkeys came out of. The cicada monkeys slowly climbed up along the tree roots, but before they climbed very far, the children caught them.

Each cicada monkey is the size of a thumb, looks like a ground turtle, and is covered in mud and sand, which makes them quite scary.

The children caught the cicada monkeys and presented them to Cheng Yaoyao like treasures. Cheng Yaoyao’s hair stood on end, and her smile was stiff. “You… you keep them for yourselves.”

“This is delicious! Here you go!”

“Sister Yaoyao, I caught one too. I’ll give you mine as well!”

“I caught the most, look!”

Little dirty hands grabbed a bunch of cicada monkeys and stretched them in front of Cheng Yaoyao. Cheng Yaoyao was almost in tears. “Okay, okay, okay! Find something to hold them and don’t let them climb on me!”

Lin Weimin offered his small basket, put all the cicada monkeys in it, and then sealed the lid.

Cheng Yaoyao then stretched out two slender white fingers, picked up her backpack, and ordered the other children, “Go wash your hands.”

“Oh!” These naughty kids usually don’t remember to wash their hands at home, no matter how much their parents remind them. After hearing Cheng Yaoyao, they all ran to the river to rub their dirty hands carefully.

Cheng Yaoyao continued to check them one by one. “No, there is still mud in the cracks of your nails!”

“And you, look at the black on the back of your hand!”

Little Tiedan had short hands, so Cheng Yaoyao squatted beside him and scooped up some water to wash his hands, carefully rubbing away the mud between his fingernails.

The other children watched and began to rub their dirty hands vigorously until the backs of their hands turned red.

Cheng Yaoyao also praised Mingming. “Look at Mingming. He is so hygienic! You should learn from Mingming!”

Mingming’s cheeks flushed with excitement, and he straightened his back involuntarily. The other children looked at Mingming’s hands, and with dismay, realized that Mingming was indeed cleaner and more hygienic than they were.

Cheng Yaoyao looked at the cicada shells and cicada monkeys, feeling a little amused and helpless. She wanted to sell the cicada shells for money, but these cicada shells were found for her by the children, and she felt embarrassed to keep them all for herself.

When Cheng Yaoyao was a child, she met some friends from the countryside at her grandfather’s house. At that time, a pound of cicada shells could be sold for dozens of yuan. Some friends from poor families could earn enough to pay their tuition by collecting cicada shells in one summer.

Cheng Yaoyao asked Goudan, “How much do you sell cicada shells for per pound?”

Goudan shook his head and said, “Cicada sloughs can only be sold in the city. We sell them to people who make candy figurines in exchange for maltose.”

Cheng Yaoyao thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go to the city in a few days to ask the supply and marketing cooperative how much it costs per kilogram.”

Goudan became impatient. “Just take them if I give them to you! There are so many cicada shells here; we can catch more tomorrow!”

Cheng Yaoyao: “….” The naughty kid is quite domineering.

Cheng Yaoyao carefully put away the cicada shells and asked Goudan, “Do you know where to pick bayberries?”

“You want to eat bayberries?”

Cheng Yaoyao nodded. “Yeah.”

The other children had been eavesdropping with their ears perked up. When they heard this, they immediately rushed over and said one after another, “I know, I know! There is a bayberry field on the riverbank behind us!”

Cheng Yaoyao said, “I want to pick some.”

“Okay!” Cheng Yaoyao’s request received a lot of enthusiastic responses, and the children immediately became excited.

There are bayberries in the forest beside the riverbank behind. Cheng Yaoyao followed Goudan and the others for a long time. When they parted the grass in front of them, they suddenly saw a bright view. They stood at the entrance of a valley, looked around, and saw trees all over the mountain. The branches were bent with red fruits. When the wind blew, the overripe bayberries fell to the ground, and the ground was covered with layers of fallen fruits.

There are so many bayberries! The mountain breeze blew towards Cheng Yaoyao, and she could already smell the sweet and sour aroma of the bayberries. Her mouth immediately began to water. The bayberries were juicy, sweet, and sour, but unfortunately, they would spoil if touched. Bayberries picked in the morning would be infested with worms and mosquitoes by the afternoon, making them difficult to preserve.

In the 21st century, it is not easy to eat fresh bayberries in places other than bayberry production areas, let alone in the 1960s, when transportation conditions were very poor. Tianshui Village had inconvenient transportation, and there was no way to preserve the freshness of the bayberries, so these bayberries could not be shipped out at all.

The villagers were all concentrated in the brigade to work. In those days, food was the most important thing. These bayberries were not enough to satisfy hunger. Eating too many would stimulate the appetite, and eating them on an empty stomach would make one’s stomach sour and nauseous. Therefore, the villagers did not take these bayberries seriously at all. In other words, the greedy children could not have any snacks all year, so now they could eat as much as they wanted.

Goudan said proudly, “This patch of bayberry is our secret base. The bayberries are big and sweet, and no one else knows about them!”

Cheng Yaoyao patted his bald head approvingly. “Good boy, I will treat you to delicious food later.”

Goudan’s eyes widened. “Is it rock sugar?”

“No, it tastes better than rock sugar,” Cheng Yaoyao assured.

After hearing Cheng Yaoyao’s words, Goudan smiled with his gap teeth exposed. A group of children couldn’t help themselves and rushed down the hillside to the bayberry tree they had set their eyes on.