年三十的“虾眼”

Shrimps' Eyes in the Spring Festival Eve

1962年的春节前夕,厂里拿出一点虾眼,作为福利,允许每名职工买2两我们工班领回6斤多一点,班长要我和另一位张姓工友按人头平均分开,我俩怕分过头,小心翼翼将每份都给个平秤,末了还剩下一小撮,工友极心细,将虾眼捏在手心里,用食指逐粒数着,再添加到每一份看他满脸认真,我感觉有点太过分：日子再苦,也不差这几粒虾眼吧事也凑巧,几天后的除夕夜里,也就是这么几粒虾眼。

The shrimps＇ eyes specifically refer to the waste of prawns after processing, most of which are black shrimps＇ eyes in the size of green beans. They are rare to see nowadays, and even when some areavailable, there must be few customers for them. However, if we date back to the Three Years of Economic Difficulty halfa century ago, it was really rare and precious. In the eve of the lunar New Year in 1962, a year of food shortage, Mr. Zhang did not have the heart to see his wife and children starve and could do nothing but dodge in the janitor＇s room of the factory. An aged worker named Mr. Jiang understood it thoroughly without disclosing the truth. Instead, he fumbled from the edge of the granny-bag several shrimps＇ eyes and gave them to Mr. Zhang to have with water and relieve his hunger. Now they were both deceased.