A bowl of birthday noodles

A bowl of birthday noodles

(Li Yulong / tr. by Phil Newell)

At noon, my brother came home from school, threw his schoolbag on the bed and went straight to the dinner table.

There are three bowls on the table. My mother is busy in the yard, but my brother hasn't come back yet. He simply went to his seat, picked up the bowl in both hands and swallowed it hard without looking at it. It seemed that something was wrong. He quickly looked into the bowl and realized that today's noodles were a bowl of white wheat noodles.

At that time, the whole village was poor, and many families could not even eat coarse grain. Mother said that the younger brother was smart, so she left her brother to work, and the mother and son worked hard for the younger brother to study.

The younger brother looked at the bowl of white noodles in surprise, and saw that the bowl seemed to be covered with something, so he stirred it hard with chopsticks, and two big and round eggs were lifted out with the chopsticks. The younger brother was even more surprised and could not help shouting to the yard: mom, what kind of noodles is this?

Of course, my brother knows what kind of noodles it is, but what he doesn't understand is why he eats such noodles.

Silly boy, you don't remember! It's your birthday, so eat it while it's hot. While working, my mother murmured, "look at your brother, this kid. What time it is? why don't you come back for dinner?"

Yeah! The younger brother answered and ate the noodles. At this time, he saw that the bowl of his mother and brother was also bulging, so he went over and dialed his brother's noodle bowl with chopsticks, and an egg was picked out. Then I dialed my mother's noodle bowl, only to find that there were several sweet potato pieces covered by the noodles. At this moment, he froze.

Mother came into the room after work and asked her younger brother while wiping sweat with a towel, but the younger brother did not answer. Mother still nagged and walked to the table, picked up the bowl and stirred it with chopsticks first, and an egg was unexpectedly picked out.

Looking at my younger brother who was doing his homework for a while, my mother seemed to want to say something, but she didn't say anything, but chewed the eggs hard, her eyes filled with tears. (reading and appreciation of American articles)