Today the weather is fine, and all the young and strong men must go out to sweep the snow, even the boys are no exception, they have to join in the work. The elderly can do whatever they want, they can stay in the house or go out to sweep the snow, only a few old grandmothers who are not in good health stay in the house, the old men with good legs and feet go out to sweep the snow.
The third uncle is holding a broom and waving it, the young men are not as efficient as him, and several old people also form a team to help sweep the accumulated snow.
The children have all left the house, the older ones are carrying baskets and following the adults to work, even the younger ones do not stay in the house, they follow the older children behind to help sweep the snow away.
On the day we first arrived, a child had a fever at night. On the way there, Cao Jian mentioned this to the village chief Li Zheng. He followed Cao Silang's instructions and wiped the child's body with white wine. Later, the fever subsided. Today, the child is better. He kept the child in the house and did not let him out.
"Well, you did a good job on this." Li Zheng listened to Cao Jian's words. Cao Jian did some things very well.
I don't know if the fatherless and motherless children who were sent here later knew that they would be abandoned if they got sick. The child with a fever recovered in two days. After coming here, they have a place to live, warm clothes to wear, and full stomachs. They are all in good spirits.
"Pah, pah, pah——" "Open the door! People in the room, should we go in and ask you to come out, or do you come out on your own?" The group walked to the front of a room. Without being told, Sun Yanmiao took the initiative to step forward, stretched out his hand and knocked on the door, shouting rudely.
Several guys who were sleeping under the quilt in the room were awakened by the knocking on the door. When they heard the noise outside, they originally wanted to stay in bed and ignore the people outside, but when they heard the knocking on the door, they became anxious and looked at each other in fear.
"Let's get up and open the door."
It is certain that if they don't get up, put on their clothes and open the door, the man outside will push the door open.
"Wait, wait." Someone shouted.
The people outside were also waiting patiently. The guys inside got up, put on their clothes and opened the door.
There are not enough houses here. There are more people coming later, and it is impossible to separate them according to the family. Instead, the boys have one room and the men have one room, so the brothers who came later live in one room.
The door opened and a group of people walked in. Cao Gang looked around the room and didn't say anything, but the temperature around him dropped by a few degrees. Li Zheng came in and saw that the brothers had just woken up from sleeping, so he started to scold them, not caring that the brothers' eyes were red and they were about to cry.
"Everyone is up and working. Those older and younger than you are working outside. Four-year-olds are sweeping the snow outside with brooms. You dare to hide in the house and sleep. Do you have any shame?..." Even Li Zheng, who is so good-tempered, couldn't control his temper and got angry.
These guys think that they are weak and should be taken care of. In addition, they have been hiding in the house and sleeping in the winter in previous years. They have slept all winter. When have they ever gotten up and run outside to sweep the snow? It's warm in the house, and they are full. It's more comfortable to lie in bed and sleep. In
such a cold weather, they still want to run outside to sweep the snow. Are they full and have nothing to do? They were unwilling to get up, let alone go out to sweep the snow.
Cao Jian had come over to call people in the morning, and he called twice. Later, he was busy and didn't care about these guys. These guys came from other villages later. This house was where the brothers lived. It was not good for him, a man, to break in, lest he ruined their reputation.
He did talk to the people in their family, but the people in their family couldn't do anything about them.
At this moment, Li Zheng and the village chief came over, and Cao Jian told them about this matter. Unexpectedly, Li Zheng and the village chief directly opened the door, and a group of people entered the house.
"What a mess this room has become! Clean up the room and get out to work!" After scolding them, Li Zheng said in a stern voice, "If I find you doing this again next time, I don't care if you are boys or men, you all get out. Do you understand?"
"Yes, yes..." The boys who were scolded lowered their heads and wiped the tears from their eyes. No one in the room stood up to say a word for them.
When Li Zheng started to scold them, Cao Gang left the room. He didn't intend to waste energy on the boys. Let him handle it. He directly drove them out to set an example. Let's see who dares to do this again in the future! Li
Zheng scolded a few boys, glanced at Cao Jian, and said to him, "You stay and deal with this." Then he left with the deputy village chief and others.
"Hurry up, clean up the house and go out to work." Cao Jian saw the boys crying after being scolded, and he didn't have any sympathy for them. He urged the people in the house to hurry up, and he waited outside.
Even if the boys were reluctant, they were scolded by the village chief of Caojia Village in front of everyone. They knew that if they dared to sleep in the house again, they would be driven out and could not continue to live here, so they hurriedly cleaned up the house and went out to work.
Just now, they were scolding them in the house, and people outside heard it. When they came out, the news had spread among the people outside. Now everyone saw the brothers coming out of the house in a sly manner, and pointed at them from behind. The brothers were so embarrassed that they almost found a place to hide.
Just as he was about to go to Aunt Liu to see if the man he had taken over last time had recovered, before he even got there, Cao Xiangnan saw a few skinny little children standing there and peeking at him. He recognized them at a glance.
The children probably recognized him, and they stood there looking at him and didn't dare to come over. They waved their hands, "Come here." Cao Xiangnan said.
The clothes worn by the elderly and children who moved in from the back were collected from their village, so they fit them well, and at least they could go out on this day. Some of the children were barefoot when they arrived, without even a pair of shoes. The youngest was about the same age as his little An An, and was so hungry that only a pair of big eyes on his face stared at him. The
younger children grabbed the clothes of the older children, and the older children walked forward, and the ones behind followed.
"Call Uncle Xiangnan." Seeing the leading boy standing two steps away from him, Cao Xiangnan hooked his finger, and when he saw him take a step forward, he put his hand on his shoulder and said.
"Uncle Xiangnan." The smart boy also followed suit.
The oldest boy spoke, and the younger ones who followed behind followed suit and called "Uncle Xiangnan."
"Kid, what's your name?" Cao Xiangnan asked.
"Gou Sheng." The kid paused, probably struggling in his heart, and said.
Gou Sheng? What a joke! It's not a proper name at first glance. "It doesn't sound good." Cao Xiangnan put his arm around the older kid's shoulders and led them to the yard over there. He turned around and asked the younger ones, "How many of you are there?"
The little ones were given names one by one, none of which were good names, and they sounded like they were randomly given by outsiders. But when you think about the fact that these children lost their parents at such a young age, it is not surprising. Not to mention that there are orphans in this era, in the peaceful era when he lived, there were countless little beggars on the streets.
So when he thought of his parents later, Cao Xiangnan was still very grateful that at least he had a grandmother who was willing to raise him, and his father was no longer a thing, and he would give his grandmother a few hundred yuan every month for his living expenses.
"These names are not nice, why don't you all choose a better name?" Cao Xiangnan said to the boy in his arms with a negotiating tone and a smile.
"Okay." The answer was without hesitation, which meant waiting for him to choose a name.
There are many children here, big and small, and naming them is not an easy task. "Let me name you? Let me think about it." Facing the looks of the children, Cao Xiangnan couldn't think of so many names for a while.
"How are you living here these days?" Cao Xiangnan couldn't think of a name for a while, so he asked them if they were living well these days.
"Okay!" Gousheng answered straightforwardly. Looking at Uncle Xiangnan who was holding his shoulder, Gousheng remembered that this uncle had the final say in this academy. He licked his lips and asked nervously, "Uncle Xiangnan, is it true that you said we can stay here to study?"
This was the question that concerned him the most. After hearing this man say that they could stay here that day, Gousheng had been thinking about this matter these days, looking forward to meeting this man and asking him clearly.
"Well, study hard and learn to read with Mr. Zheng in the next few months. You will be arranged to take a simple test at the end of February or the beginning of March next year. If you pass the test, you can stay in this academy to study. If you fail..." You know what I mean! Cao Xiangnan looked at the half-grown boy and saw a glimmer of light in his eyes.
"Okay, we will all get through this." They will all stay, Gou Sheng believed.
"Okay, don't let me down." Cao Xiangnan patted the child on the shoulder, and walked over to see Zheng Shubo and Liang Yan outside. They were all outside sweeping up the fallen snow, and everyone who lived here also came out.
"Xiangnan, you are here, I thought you would come over after the snow stopped." Zheng Shubo saw the person coming and shouted with a smile.
"Come and see how everyone is doing here, are you all okay here?" Cao Xiangnan was accompanied by a few children. Seeing Zheng Shubo looking at the children, he just said that they were his future students, and then told the children that this was Mr. Zheng who would teach them in the future, and asked them to call him "Mr. Zheng".
It was snowing when the children arrived. They had not met their Mr. Zheng yet. When they saw him, they all respectfully called him "Mr. Zheng."
"Hey." Zheng Shubo had naturally never met the children before. He had heard that a few orphans had come to the academy. He thought that these children might be the orphans who came later. "Everyone lives well here," he said.
Xiangnan? Cao Xiangnan? Cao Silang? Zhao Yicheng, who was standing at the other end, subconsciously looked up when he heard the name and saw Cao Silang walking towards Mr. Zheng with a few children.
From his angle, he could only see the other person's profile.
Zhao Yicheng was stunned for a moment. This man was much younger than he had imagined. He did not expect that the one who helped him was such a young guy. The Cao Jia Silang, who was known as a powerful man, was actually so young.