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[wenzili]

（1）A Wolf Grandma?
The most interesting thing in my childhood was visiting grandma�s village.
Living in a small town, I was annoyed by peddlers� shouting as well as butchers� and groceries� smells. Therefore, fresh and peaceful pastoral in countryside was my dream. That was why I considered grandma�s village as sort of paradise and was longing for visit. As soon as I got the visiting forecast, I immediately counted down the coming days with my fingers. The excitement really was no less than village children to down town for movie or sightseeing.

My grandma was my mother�s stepmother. She got two daughters again for my grandpa after her remarriage. Perhaps, it is the tough nature for stepparents to be satisfied by their adopted young ones or due to her occasional negligence to settle a domestic trifle; I, together with my brother and sisters, strongly felt the estrangement between mother and grandma, even though, nothing happened to them before. Therefore, when we talking about her, we never forgot to add some modifications, such as �step-grandma�, �the second grandma�, �latter grandma� etc.
�Oh! My daring! My heart! My honey!� shouted grandma, with her fingers to comb her messy and gray hair. �It is so nice to see you here!� she was most excited by my visit and rushed to the main gate to meet me. To such a laud and fervent welcome, I shouldn�t have any suspicion. However, I was deeply affected by the story of �wolf grandma� that I never came out from its shadow and always doubted her warmness in my mind.
�Grandma� I faltered to her with an obvious reluctance. Then, passed her my gift bucket and ran out from her house to find my cousins, as quick as a gust of wind.
(2) Tamer and Buffalo
My cousins were always very happy for our reunion. The most ceremonious reception was to share a countryside practice, ride on cultivating buffalos.
�Wenzili, Wenzili, we are coming!� a cheerful hail together with a herd of massive and muddy buffalos running towards me, where my friends were brandishing reins and galloping on. Some excited fellows even lashed upon the beasts� tails loudly. The immediate response was the buffalos� madly running. They took no care to my panic and scattered to surround me. For sudden rein tightening, the buffalos, with heads askew, were bellowing to me loudly. I was very frightened and almost cried out. On the contrary to my cowardice, my friends were agilely grounding from the backs and competitively passed their reins to me, just as swift as a herd of groundhogs. They eagerly wanted me to ride on and to scoot around. Facing the dirty and inaccessible beasts, I had no idea, but managed to hide my scare.
One of my friends promptly showed me the way. Firstly, he gently said something to the beast. The buffalo was tamely lowering its head with sound breathing and dull eyesight to its little master in front. As soon as it lowered enough, the cowboy, with a pair of bare feet, promptly stepped on its top between the horns. To my surprise, just like an elevator, the beast slowly rose its head up. When it reached to a proper height, the little boy bestrode on its neck and rapidly climbed to the back, then, revolved his body with hands� support. Just like an acrobat, he had steadily ridden on the buffalo. With his triumphant whistle and waving the rein proudly he staggeringly ran away, and then came back again. He firmly handed the rein to me. In this way, I wanted but had no reason to reject his kindness. However, because of my emulative nature and unwilling to be left behind, I had to muster up my courage and held the rein firmly. The cowboy shouted to the buffalo to avoid its wildness to a stranger. Sure enough, the horns were approaching to me. Staring these sharp horns, I instantly associated it with the scene of Spanish bullfighting. The bull horns fiercely charged to matador�s private parts and made his blood spout to the red cape. His screaming was still resounding around my ears. I could not help to shiver. Finally, under several hands� support, I managed to ride on the buffalo�s back. The little boy slightly lapped on its bottom. Then, the beast started to walk. I immediately felt faint. No pedal on my feet, nor saddle to support my seat, only a rigid back was against my tailbone and periodically generated pain to me. For several times, I was almost thrown off by the alternant movement of the bony rids. With my friends� powerful support, I finally completed an extreme hard trek and arrived at the other side of a small rice field.
(3) An Adventure on Fire
It was late autumn and after harvest. The field lay waste. Only the remaining rice stubble was curled up by cold wind. �Let�s jump a fire� someone suggested. �OK!� the others answered cheerfully. They all rolled down simultaneously from buffalos� backs and ran around.
The remaining rice stubble was very dry and easy to pull out since the roots had rotted already. Just a moment, a pile of stubble was as lofty as a hill. Then, they stood leeward and in line to block the wind. One of them squatted dawn and lighted a match skillfully. Immediately after its ignition, a cloud of smoke rose to the sky. The numerous blazes came out from the stubble pile with constant clacking sound just like bursting firecrackers
After an enthusiastic hailing, one of the oldest boys suddenly shouted and swiftly charged toward the fire. As soon as he reached the stubble pile, he jumped over with his legs� open, just like a brave monkey. He succeeded and proudly returned with a completely blackened face and a pair of blinking white eyes. His heroic mettle frightened me a lot but largely encouraged the others. Without any mobilization, they all were shouting as charging to the fire. Occasionally, when someone jumped with an improper posture or less strength, he would fall and get his clothes on fire. With a sorry look, he would immediately roll over on the ground to put the fire out, then, tried again under others� fleer.
(4) My Poor Aunty
The most amusing thing was such wild acting-up, but the most embarrassing event was the reception dining. All my relatives were very poor. They could not afford meat all year round, except for certain fetes. However, since the presence of a coddle guest, grandma and aunts all spared no effort to buy a piece of pork to host me. I supposed it must have been a long time, since they had tasted meat last time. Therefore, only fat could satisfy their cravings. They considered it as a great delicacy and regarded fancy to fat should be a general rule. Consequently, to host me with fat meat had become a common practice during my staying in the village.
I was spoiled at home. I hated fat very much. Even a small piece of fat attached to lean meat would turn my stomach immediately. Therefore, for sequent days, my relatives� fat banquets had made me suffer a lot. Up till now, I still clearly remember the scene hosted by my poor aunty��
This aunty was the youngest daughter of my grandma. She married to a young man in the same village. She became a widow at the age of 28, and then she vowed never to marry again to keep Chinese virtue. She endured a lot of hardship to bring up a son and two daughters and miraculously managed to send them to school. Ever since my childhood, I had never seen a single piece of her utensil new or in good condition. In her shabby cupboard all the bowls and dishes were broken or had gaps on the edges. She never had any lighting from evening to midnight.
She was a devoted Christian. Every evening, she led her son and daughters to pray, then moved her yarn wheel to courtyard. Lit by moonlight and resonated by insects singing, she spun and spun until midnight. There were only 2 meals provided every day in her family, one rice meal and one porridge meal. All year round, the dishes on her table were only made from her self-support vegetables. They barely had meat. Perhaps, she felt very shameful for not been able to host her nephew by a delicious meal before; she sold out her spindles and bought a piece of fat pork. With such a deliberate preparation, she was so delighted that she kept saying:�Thank to my God, I got it now!���
(5) A Painful Plot
It was about 8 p.m. when my cousin woke me up for the dinner. The dining room was completely dark. I couldn�t find my way, only heard a warm welcome came from somewhere. My cousin guided me to a seat. It was a new moon night, no moonlight available to my poor aunty. Just a bit of flame reflection came from the hearth, which illuminated our faces from time to time. The reception tea was instantly made for me, with a strong smell of burnt straw. The tea stuff was also homemade, but was so coarse that it pricked my tongue from time to time. However, it was a rare luxury case for them.
After a while, the dinner was ready. My aunty asked her daughter to borrow a candle from her uncle next door. The brightness had befallen the dining room. A cheerful heralding together with cousins gamboling turned the atmosphere up. No sooner, they all quieted down for not getting used to the light. With tearing eyes, they had to turn their faces away from the glittering candle.
A main course of steamed meat with pumpkin and rice flour was presented. An attractive aroma with slowly rising vapor caused one more hail. �Calm down! Calm down! My dear.� Said my aunty to her children seriously, �Don�t forget it is for your younger cousin, he is our guest.� She emphasized again with a soft smiling. In the mean time, she quickly picked up pieces of fat for me one after another. To avoid my rejection, she even stuck them into my bowl and deliberately covered with rice. For her such abrupt action, I had no way to defend myself and could not help to tear. �Aunty, I don�t like fat��� I mumbled to her. �No! Dear! It is impossible, no one dislikes fat. It must be your courtesy.� Aunty firmly denied my explanation and attributed it to my mammy�s discipline. She picked up a piece of fat again as admiring her sister�s good breeding. I had no way to convince her, but to beg for her permission to share the fats with my longing cousins. She reluctantly agreed, but with the limitation of one piece only for each. Obviously, the remainders in my bowl had no way to deal with. I had no idea and didn�t want to divulge my scandal of dislike fat. At that time, it was really a rebel against common sense. I was so worry, that I started looking around to find my way out. Suddenly, a staring dog beside the table enlightened me. I gathered all the fat and deliberately put them next to the large gap in my bowl. I pretended to eat as waiting for my auntie�s further action. Soon enough, she came back again from kitchen and put another piece into my bowl. I feigned to avoid it and quickly withdrew my bowl. In the mean time, the fat, because of the centrifugal effect, rapidly flew away through the gap. They all were received by the greedy dog, that had been drooling there for a long time.
� Oh, no, no! � cried my aunty distressingly, �my God! Do forgive me!� she put down the chopsticks and immediately ran after the piggish dog. All my cousins joined this interception immediately. As running, they could never have imagined that this hoax was plotted by myself. At that moment, I was in a complicated feeling, not only with a relaxation of free from the fat, but also with regret for causing so much pain to my poor auntie�s family. I sat still with a blank mind and endless remorse.
Several decades passed, my aunty had already passed away, but her painful cry and my cousins� whoops are still lingering in my mind and cast a shadow to my childhood memory.
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Practice made every effort perfect

[Winifred2]

wenzili, I really like these "snapshot stories" of your childhood visits to the Chinese countryside! I am a new member of this forum, too, and wonder where the best place for grammar corrections is - Could someone tell us, do we just proceed here on the literature thread, or is there a better thread for tinkering with grammar?

[wenzili]

Dear Ms. Winifred,
Thank you for your kindness and encouragement again! Since I know nothing about this forum, I suggest you may send your corrections to my personal mail box. The address I'll inform you in the private massage of literature forum.
I am so fansy to English writting, that I am systematically review English grammar before my new literature impulse.
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Practice made every effort perfect