Childhood "Catty" Is Actually the Face of the Soul

It is a euphemism to say that the family was poor at an early age. In fact, the family was poor and had no spare money. At that time, there was no such thing as pocket money. When I grew up later, I realized that there is still such a thing in ordinary family expenses. The mother became ill for a long time and took a pill. Pills need medicine, one pill in the morning, chopped with a piece of dried dates, jujube, knead away the pills, steam them in a pot, and eat them well. One pill in the afternoon, use a walnut, peel and chop, eat in the same way as in the morning.

My mother was recuperating, my housekeeper was doing housework, my father was working outside, and my younger brother was young. The task of buying medicine was handed over to me. There is no pill in this village, and it is available in a nearby town, and I am also studying in the town, and it is convenient for me to do it nearby. I also don't know from which day, when I suddenly had an idea, I bought a pound of dried dates and a pound of dried walnuts each time. Dates and walnuts were 3 yuan a pound at that time, so that 3 cents a month could be saved.

Jujube and walnuts, of course, are not bought in drug stores, but in department stores. The 3 cents saved this time have become school supplies ranging from 5 points to 1 gross 5 such as pencil sharpeners, erasers, books, rulers, and pencils.

I just remember that for a long time, I never asked for money from my family and bought any school supplies. My mother and uncle did not care about this. Perhaps the difference between one pound and nine two five is too small, and no one will notice. But until one time, I bought twenty walnuts in total, so it happened that the first time I used it, four of them were broken, and then my mother felt too light. I measured it with my family's scale and it was only eight, two, five.

The mother was very upset, and felt that being a folks' owner was really unscrupulous. Not only is there a shortage of two, but there are also a few that are all bad. My mother was going to go to the shopkeeper to ask for an explanation, but I stopped him, and said, "You have already taken the thing out. No matter how you say it, people will not recognize it." My mother would just stop, telling me to change to a department store to buy later, don't be so discouraged. Actually, I was in my heart at that time. Because, I was really afraid of my mother's passing. After a quarrel, the shop owner would definitely tell her, "Your son originally bought 9:25."

At the time, the owner of the small shop was missing one, two, two, and half, and that was also a black heart. If the owner said these things, my mother would never spare me, and a few beats and scolds would be inevitable. Also, beating and scolding is a trivial matter. In the process of beating and scolding, neighbors in the neighborhood all know about my "evil deeds". Small children, but also people, have big faces.

I secretly took the walnut I bought and brought it to the same department store, and carefully said to the owner, "Uncle, there were just 21, so please change 21 good walnuts." Then, I took out the 6 cents I saved in the past two months, bought 2 more, added it to the total walnuts, and returned it to the uncle. My mother was very happy about it and thought I was grown up and sensible. He just laughed and said nothing. Maybe, I already knew that I was "catty". Later on, I never had a "less than two pounds" thing at home. This experience also reminded me of a simple philosophy: Normally, it is not yours, and you must not take it. Strictly speaking, some money has "life" to take, but no "life" to spend. This "fate" is often not life, but face, but the threshold of the soul.