Chapter 245

By around three o'clock in the afternoon, the homesteads of Jiang Ning, Jiang Yanyan, Jiang Miao, Jiang Qinqin and other girls had been cleared.

In fact, cleaning up here is not difficult. There are mainly two things to do: clearing dead grass and branches, and cutting down the trees that died last year.

For example, the terrain at the entrance of the barren mountain is the lowest in the entire mountain. The further you go inside, the shallow slope becomes from the top of the mountain to the bottom. Therefore, the trees at the entrance are basically all drowned, but most of the trees inside are still alive.

After the trees were cut down, they were all piled aside, clearing about six acres of land in total.

It is not the case that you can just cut down the trees, dead grass and thorns and use them immediately. If you want to build a house here, you need to dig a deep foundation to prevent future major floods. You also need to dig out all the tree roots here, fill the area with sand, gravel and cement, and pour a flood-proof foundation.

Because the terrain of the barren mountain is two or three meters higher than the rice fields on both sides, there is no need to build a waterproof layer like Jiang Jun's family, but raising the foundation and building a threshold are still necessary.

The cement road outside the barren mountain was full of people, but Grandpa Jiang did not go near. Instead, he stood at the outermost edge of the crowd, a little in front of Jiang Jun's house, looking from afar at the people on the barren mountain who were busy tidying up their homesteads.

Sometimes time is like a ruthless and fast shuttle. The confused and helpless looks on the faces of those educated youth when they first arrived at their village seemed to have not faded from his memory. The makeshift earthen houses had long since become ruins, with tall and sturdy trees growing among the ruins. Now these trees have been cut down again to build new houses there.

That was his granddaughter's house.

Jiang Ning supported Grandpa Jiang.

Grandpa Jiang just stood there quietly for a while, with a smile on his face and eyes. After smiling for a while, he turned around and walked back to the village.

The thick snow on the ground made a crisp crackling sound when stepped on.

People of their generation generally died in their fifties or sixties. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer people of their generation. He doesn't know when, but all the old friends around him are gone. The past years are like dust, gradually losing their color from his memory. Maybe one day, just like a TV that is turned off, everything will suddenly be dark.

He returned to the high platform of the old shop at the entrance of the village. There were many old men and women sitting on the platform, all looking in the direction of the barren mountains.

"Times have really changed. If we had been able to get a homestead back then, Feifeng wouldn't have gone crazy!"

"There's nowhere to go. There's no room for her anywhere, and she's pregnant... What else can she do if she doesn't go crazy?" Unlike the girls nowadays, they can survive by working outside even if they don't have this tea field.

Seeing that everything was almost ready, Jiang Guotai clapped his hands and said, "Let's stop here today. When everyone comes to the city, I'll treat everyone to a meal. It's almost New Year's Eve dinner. Let's go back and have a lively New Year's Eve dinner. We'll continue after the New Year!"

Forty or fifty strong young men from the village came at once, and there were many strong laborers who wanted to work, but they couldn't find work.

Who can't see that Jiang Guotai is the most promising person in the village right now? Even though Jiang Guoding was the mayor, if there was any problem in the surrounding area, Jiang Guotai's words might not be enough to make it happen. Everyone wanted to get Jiang Guotai's help, so with just one word from Jiang Guotai, people from the second and third wives and some of the first wife who could come to help came.

Jiang's father was also in the barren mountain, working with Jiang Hongbing and his friends to chop trees. Together with Jiang Hongbing, they dragged the chopped trees to the edge of Jiang Ning's homestead. Jiang Hongbing smiled and said, "We'll keep an eye on these trees every day to make sure they're not stolen. With so many trees, if there are extra beams, we can make cabinets, beds, tables and stools."

Dad Jiang looked at his house, which was only two hundred meters away from the barren mountain, and then looked at the barren mountain. He felt very satisfied.

When he was young, he missed too much of his children's growth. He didn't feel anything when he was young. He just felt like he was carrying a mountain on his back, pressing him so hard that he could hardly stand up straight. He only thought about making money to pay off his debts. Now, as he gets older, he wants his children to stay by his side more and more, especially after Jiang Song disappeared in the past few years and there was no news of him. He was afraid that the remaining two children would not come back.

The lonely scene of celebrating the New Year with Ailian in the past two years was so painful that it was even more uncomfortable than moving bricks at a construction site. It was like something was gnawing at his heart, which was simply driving him crazy. He really couldn't understand why none of his three children came back.

Now, Ningning has built a house on the edge of the village, and her two brothers will be there too, so they can take care of each other.

He couldn't help but look at Jiang Guotai with admiration.

He knew that Jiang Guotai had always been very proactive and courageous, but he did not expect him to act so quickly. He talked about the distribution of residential land the day before and implemented it the next day. The six acres of land were acquired so quickly.

Compared with Jiang Guotai, he always lacks some courage.

Jiang Hongbing came over and asked Jiang Guotai: "Uncle, what are we going to do with the tree roots? It's not easy to dig up the roots of so many trees."

Jiang Guotai said: "Why is it so difficult to dig these trees? I will send an excavator here later and we will deal with all these trees after the New Year."

A group of people returned carrying shovels and axes, with excitement on everyone's face, especially the young people. Following Jiang Guotai, they always felt that their village was thriving and that the days were getting more and more promising.

People from Xujia Village, Xiaojiangjia Village, and Wujia Village which was a little further away also returned with complicated expressions.

After they returned, people from their brigade and village asked them, "I heard from my eldest sister-in-law that Jiangjia Village is allocating residential land to girls. Is that true?"

Most of the people who inquired about this were women, and some men were dissatisfied with their inquiries and scolded them, saying, "Don't ask about other people's affairs! Whether it is true or not, what does it have to do with you? You are from Jiangjia Village? Even if Jiangjia Village allocates housing land to the girls, what does it have to do with you? Can they give you any? Go back and cook!"

The scolded woman was dissatisfied but dared not say anything. She turned around and went home to continue preparing the New Year's Eve dinner. The men in the house were either making couplets or watching TV.

During the Chinese New Year, all the housework is done by women.

A netizen once said that his ideal life is to have hot meals when he gets home from get off work every day, and to drink, chat and watch TV with his father and brothers, in a lively and down-to-earth way.

Female netizens were immediately horrified when they saw this ideal life. So who was preparing hot meals while they were drinking, chatting and watching TV?

Yes, they are all women in the family.

What men call a warm family life immediately becomes a horror movie in women's eyes.

Horror films like this are the common reality of this era.

The men were all dejected, or they went to complain to other men in the village when they couldn't figure it out: "Are all the men in Jiangjia Village weaklings? If we give the girls some housing plots, won't these old women have to poop and pee on our necks in the future?"

They really couldn't understand how any man could agree to give a residential plot to a woman.

Someone who got the news from Xujia Village said, "You don't know, do you? It seems like they want to keep Jiang Ning. Think about it, she's only been in college for two years, and their entire village has access to roads. The tea grown on the hill can earn tens of thousands a year. Don't they want to keep Jiang Ning?"

"Didn't Jiang Guotai order the repair and planting of tea leaves and roads in their village? What does it have to do with Jiang Ning?"

"You don't understand this, right? Think about how long Jiangjia Village has been poor. Jiang Guotai wasn't so famous before, was he? I heard that it was Jiang Ning who gave him advice behind the scenes that made him rich. Otherwise, why didn't he become rich earlier? As soon as Jiang Ning came back from college, he became rich. Look at how this road was built. It couldn't have been built without millions of dollars."

"I heard that Mayor Jiang only has one daughter and he didn't want her to marry off, so he decided to give homesteads to girls in the village?"

"Hey, it's all the same!"

"That's about right, that makes sense!"

On the New Year's Eve of the millennium, the most shocking topic for many young people who had returned was not who won or lost thousands at the gambling table, but the distribution of residential land to the girls in Jiangjia Village.

This matter was originally circulated in a small circle, but with the return of married girls on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the news quickly spread throughout the surrounding area, even to Wujiang City and neighboring cities.

Even Wang Xiyue's father heard about this and asked his daughter whether it was true or not.

Although his daughter grew up in the city, Wang Xiyue is his only daughter.

Jiang Xin had already told Wang Xiyue about this, and Wang Xiyue smiled and said to her father: "It's true, the homestead has been sorted out."

Jiang Guotai originally wanted to let everyone have a good New Year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but who in Jiangjia Village doesn't want to cling to him? He didn't even need to give any instructions. After breakfast on the first day of the New Year, activists, including Jiang Hongjun and Jiang Hongbing, rushed to the barren mountain with hoes, shovels and axes.

They couldn't dig up the tree stumps, but they could pick up the countless large and small stones on the ground and pile them aside. When the time came, these stones could be used to raise the foundation or do other things, saving the trouble of pulling stones down from the mountain.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Aunt Jiang and her husband returned to her parents' home with their two children. The pier was right next to them when they got off the boat. They saw the pier which was made entirely of cement. There were small willow trees planted every fifty or sixty meters on both sides of the embankment, and wild wolfberries supported by bamboo poles.

Jiang Guofeng also grew up here and is very familiar with every plant and tree in his hometown. Looking at the sign on the bamboo pole, he exclaimed, "This is actually wolfberry? Oh my god, when I was a kid, this thing was everywhere. We were so hungry that we didn't dare to eat it. If I had known that this was wolfberry, I would have picked and eaten it when I was a kid!"

Her two children also looked around curiously to see the completely changed environment of their grandparents' home.

In fact, they don't feel much when they come here in winter. Only the remaining lotus leaves are left on the riverbank. What is slightly better than previous years is that every winter, the wild lotus roots on the riverbank were dug up in a mess, and the riverbank was full of turned-over mud and bumps. But this year there is still water. In the white snow, the remaining lotus leaves on the shallow silver lake surface look like a beautiful and clean ink painting.

Jiang Guofeng heard last year that her mother's family had divided up the tea land, but because she was busy with business, she had not been able to visit. After returning this time, she brought her husband Wang Dawei and their two children to the graves of her grandparents, burned paper money, and then looked at the neatly-marked hilltops.

The hill in front of the house is reserved for firewood, so it is now planted with chestnut trees, persimmon trees, and some mulberries. The tea mountain is planted with the Huolu Mountain as the center and downwards. This year, the fourth room in the main house is cleaning up the hill facing north, just above the Huolu. The sunlight there is not as good as last year's mountain.

Jiang Guofeng looked at the three tea mountains with joy and surprise in his eyes. He clapped his hands and said, "Oh, that's good. With these tea trees, my brothers and sisters-in-law will have an income. I was so worried about them in the past few years. Now it's good. They can live a better life and I don't worry anymore!"

Jiang Guofeng has been married for more than ten years, and her face has shown some signs of ageing, but her eyes and eyebrows are still innocent and kind.

Uncle Jiang smiled and said, "Are you relieved now? You had to drag me here to take a look. I can make some money during the New Year holidays. If I stop for a day, I will make much less money. Just leave after you're done!"

Aunt Jiang laughed and said, "I heard that my mother's family has changed so much. How can I not come back to take a look? Otherwise, people will say that I am a girl from Jiangjia Village and ask me about my mother's family. I don't know anything. Won't they laugh at me?"

"Okay, okay, now that I've come back to take a look, you feel relieved, right?"

My cousin Wang Mingliang said with sparkling eyes: "I heard that it is very fun here during the summer vacation. I will come to my grandma's house to play when the time comes!"

"And me, and me!" Wang Mingyue also said excitedly.

In the past, they never came to their grandmother's house except during the Chinese New Year. Even if they came, they would not stay overnight here because it was too inconvenient. They would rather go home for a shower and accommodation.

But now his eldest uncle and second uncle's houses have many rooms, and they have all used the toilet at the entrance of the village, which is thousands of times better than the dry toilet in his house. Wang Mingliang doesn't want to go home after staying here. It just so happens that Aunt Jiang also wants her children to be closer to her parents' home. Father Jiang is also a warm-hearted person, so he lets Wang Mingyue and Wang Mingliang stay in Jiangjia Village for a few more days.

This year, Jiang Bo accompanied Jiang Ma to her parents' home. He also got the news and asked Jiang Ma about the homestead. Jiang Ma nodded and said, "I don't know either. How can I know what the homestead is like?"

According to Jiang Ma's idea, why wouldn't a girl get married? It was probably left for her parents and brothers. Her sisters-in-law from her mother's side also thought so, but Jiang's mother still invited her sisters-in-law to her house to play.

Mother Jiang couldn't hold her head up in her parents' home for so many years, but now her house is bigger and better than her eldest brother's!

Her brothers, sisters-in-law, younger brothers, wives-in-law, nephews and nieces from her mother's side were all curious about the situation in Jiangjia Village, so they chartered a tricycle and went to Jiangjia Village.

Along the way, I was amazed at how well the road from Wugong Mountain to Jiangjia Village was built. It was not bumpy at all, and the cement road was wide enough to accommodate two cars passing each other.

It was even more amazing when they arrived at Jiangjia Village. The village was paved with cement roads. The most important thing was that when they arrived at Jiangjia Village, they saw that Jiangjia Village was reclaiming the barren hills.

Jiang Guotai and Jiang Guoding were too busy to spend much time in Jiangjia Village. As the second day of the Lunar New Year was a good day to move graves according to both the Taoist priest and the calendar, they dispatched an excavator on the first day of the Lunar New Year. On the morning of the second day, they cut down all the dead trees on the barren hill, and then began to dig up the tree roots and collect the corpses.

Many old people in the village came here. Young people cannot collect the bones, and it is not something that can be done by just digging them up. Every village has someone who is responsible for funeral ceremonies. It is like a skill, a craft, passed down from generation to generation. The person in charge of funeral ceremonies of this generation is a man from the second room. This matter has special rituals and etiquette, and everyone must listen to him. He does it, and others can only assist.

Because most of the young people in the village choose to go out to work, there are very few young people left in the village. The person who inherits and learns this skill of the younger generation and will inherit funeral ceremonies in the future is not the son of the second wife, but Jiang Hongjun.

So the main people who did this were that man and Jiang Hongjun.

Jiang Hongjun was not afraid at all. He directed everyone to start with cutting down trees. Every time the excavator found a corpse, he and the corpse collectors would collect the bones.

Wang Mingyue, Wang Mingliang, people from Jiang Ma's family, and others all came to the barren mountain, as did many people from various villages who brought their husbands and children back to their parents' homes on the second day of the New Year.

Jiang Hongjun's master saw many young girls and children watching and quickly drove them away: "What are you women looking at here? Take the children away! Children are weak-minded, don't scare them to death. Take all the girls and children away! Take the elderly away too! Only leave men under 40!"