When Xiao Guofu was young, he often went up the mountain with his grandmother's son to pick chestnuts, and they would always bring the fruit back for the two elderly people.
Later, after the old woman's son passed away, Xiao Guofu worried that it would be inconvenient for the two elderly people to do heavy work, so he often came to take care of them.
Yesterday, I gave Grandma some roasted chestnuts that Mr. and Mrs. Li Shuixian had given her to try, hoping she would remember the taste and not be cheated by strangers who came to buy chestnuts.
When Li Shuixian delivered the chestnuts, she told him that besides her and Xiao Zhihai, there would definitely be others coming to collect the chestnuts.
Tell him to inform the Xiao family in the mountains that all the chestnuts should be kept for her and Xiao Zhihai and should not be sold to others.
They accused others of shortchanging people and cheating the villagers out of their money.
Xiao Guofu never expected that the strangers who came to swindle money would actually be the bully Xiao Cheng and his wife.
After Grandpa Xiao Zhigang moved to the new town, he rarely came back except for the Qingming Festival each year, and Xiao Zhigang was the same.
Xiao Cheng had never returned to his hometown since he was a child.
Xiao Guofu's understanding of Xiao Cheng was limited to what he heard from the Xiao family in town when he went to the market.
The comments were all negative, saying that Xiao Cheng bullied men and women, committed violence in the streets, and did all sorts of evil.
He verbally abused and targeted his stepmother, spent his days doing nothing, and led a group of thugs to fight everywhere.
Xiao Guofu was also unclear about the facts and didn't know who to believe or how to make a decision.
But the fact that Xiao Cheng helped him borrow a brick truck to transport people on the way back to his hometown to pay respects to his ancestors, thus seeking justice for the Xiao family and forcing back the Chen family's ancestral worship convoy, and clearing the way for their ancestors, is undeniable. No one in the Xiao family could have done that.
Moreover, from the time he returned to the countryside from town to the time he went up the mountain to pay respects to his ancestors, Xiao Cheng did not do anything wrong.
It seems that some of the rumors are true and some are false.
Not to mention, the grandparents' trust and affection for Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu far exceeded the level of their initial meeting with the Xiao family members outside. The two elders' judgment of people is undoubtedly correct.
Naturally, he already had everything in mind.
Xiao Guofu finally agreed that the chestnuts his grandparents had stored should be sold to Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu.
As for the others...
He only needed to inform the Xiao couple that someone was buying chestnuts; he wouldn't help either the Xiao Cheng couple or the Xiao Zhihai couple.
The tribespeople can sell to whomever they want.
Anyway, they're all the same price.
As for his family's chestnuts, let's talk about them after the ancestral worship ceremony. There's also a Xiao family ancestral tomb to visit this afternoon.
After instructing the people in the room that they would be able to eat in half an hour, Xiao Guofu hurriedly returned to the square.
Grandma led Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu to the house where chestnuts were stored, which was next to the main house and was also a mud-brick and tile house.
The space is very large, and it looks like it was built to house domestic animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese.
Push open the wooden door.
As far as the eye could see, there were only large, brownish-brown sand dunes, piled up one after another, very tall and wide.
“This place used to be used for raising piglets. When my son was young, he and Afu would go up the mountain to make traps and catch a lot of wild boars. Sometimes they would also catch pheasants, rabbits, and all sorts of small animals, which they would raise separately.”
When she got to the sad part, the old woman paused for a moment, and then a look of relief appeared on her face: "Later, Afu also caught some piglets for us, and we raised them in this house."
"Who knew that before the piglets had been raised for more than a few days, a huge typhoon suddenly struck, tearing off all the black roof tiles and beams, which crashed to the ground and crushed all the piglets to death."
"After Afu brought people over to repair the roof, we stopped raising piglets." At this point, the old woman smiled at Bailu, who was listening attentively, and said, "Actually, the piglets on the mountain have become clever, and Afu can't catch them."
The old woman smiled so much that the wrinkles around her eyes lifted, her smile filled with kindness and warmth, without a trace of reproach.
Bai Lu's feet were still sore from the medicated wine she had just applied, and she was being supported by Xiao Cheng. She gave the old woman a perfectly timed surprised smile: "The little piglets probably didn't expect that Uncle Fu was so powerful that he caught all their relatives, so the little piglets were all scared and ran away."
These words not only affirmed Xiao Guofu's ability to catch piglets, but also aligned with the old woman's intention to protect her descendants.
Grandma couldn't be happier than Bailu, her face beaming with an even brighter smile as she praised, "Dazhuang is so lucky to have married such a smart and beautiful wife. He should cherish her."
Xiao Cheng, supporting his good wife, replied earnestly, whether out of agreement or ulterior motives, "Yes, I will."
Grandpa and Grandma looked very pleased.
The old woman continued, "Later, when we ran out of piglets, we moved the sand and chestnuts we had stored in the cave back to the house. These chestnuts were all picked by my husband and me from the mountain when they were ripe and had fallen. The ones on the trees were too high for us to reach, and the shorter ones we would knock down with a bamboo pole."
"Not many. I estimate that all the chestnuts buried in the sand piles combined would only amount to about two thousand catties."
The old woman's nonchalant tone made Bai Lu click her tongue in amazement. Two thousand catties of chestnuts, and that's not much?
If just two elderly people can pick so many chestnuts, it's hard to imagine how many young people in the clan must pick. If a family has many members, wouldn't it be tens of thousands?
Then she realized that Xiao Wei himself could pick up more than 400 jin (200 kg), and Bai Lu's surprise was immediately soothed.
Thinking about it, I couldn't help but reach out and touch the little guy's bowl cut head next to me. He's really something!
Xiao Wei suddenly regretted it; he shouldn't have been holding the big straw hat, he should have worn it on his head.
But when he looked up and saw Bai Lu being supported by her older brother, his awkward feelings were relieved.
Well, it's actually quite nice to touch it.
Grandma took a shovel from the corner of the house, and Grandpa took it to shovel sand. Soon they shoveled out a sack full of chestnuts.
He shook off the sand.
As the old woman untied the rope of the burlap sack, she said, "Luckily there was sand, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to store good chestnuts."
"There is a very wide river on the other side of the mountain. There is sand in the river and a lot of sand in the shallows along the riverbank. In the past, no one cared about that river, so the villagers would fill sacks with sand and carry it back to bury chestnuts. A few years ago, a big boss came and contracted that river to open a sand quarry, and then they stopped allowing people to collect the sand."
"They don't even let the villagers get close to that river. If they do, they'll get beaten up. That boss is really fierce..."
Bai Lu and Xiao Cheng exchanged a glance, and inexplicably read a tacit understanding in each other's eyes—Li Chengbin.
Most of the sand and gravel pits in Pingcheng are controlled by Li Chengbin. He has a protector and acts recklessly.
The old woman grabbed a handful of chestnuts and gave them to Xiao Cheng, her smiling eyes hinting that he should peel one for Bai Lu to try.
Under Bai Lu's puzzled and surprised gaze, Xiao Cheng supported her with his left hand and began peeling chestnuts with his right.
Holding a chestnut in a large palm, using a slender thumb and forefinger to crack it open and peel the shell.
The movements were fluid and graceful.
Soon, Xiao Cheng peeled a chestnut and, in front of his grandparents, offered it to Bai Lu's lips.
Bai Lu still held his arm, slightly opened her mouth, bit off a chestnut, and chewed it slowly.
Hmm...it's very sweet.
Xiao Cheng withdrew his fingertips, which had been touched by soft lips, and continued peeling chestnuts as if nothing had happened.
The next chestnut, which was pinched open, was still warm when it was put into Bailu's mouth.
As if sensing something, Bailu deliberately avoided eating the next chestnut when it was brought to her lips.
But by sheer coincidence, she bit his finger...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
