Listening to books on a summer night, Shao Hengning reads the answers

Answer 1

Listening to books on summer nights was a happy memory of Shao Hengning's childhood in his hometown in northern Jiangsu. Every summer, he would be sent back to his hometown in Northern Jiangsu to listen to the Northern Jiangsu drum on the wheat field. At that time, he was only eleven or twelve years old. He had very little homework during the holidays and had a lot of time to squander. During the day, he would read the books collected by his grandfather in the shade of the corridor. At night, after dinner, he would change into a fragrant dress and go to the wheat field to listen to the drum books. The one singing the drum book was his distant grandfather. He was in his fifties, tall, and had a hoarse and mellow voice. He could sing more than a dozen long drum books. When it was getting dark and he started to beat the drums to a specific rhythm, the adults and children in the village would put down their bowls and gather around him. Some people brought their own stools, some people sat cross-legged on a sack, and young girls would spread straw mats. On the wheat field, enthusiastic neighbors had already lit the wormwood to repel mosquitoes.