Chapter 186 Moving to a New Home
The starry sky in Dahe Village is beautiful.
The night sky is dotted with twinkling stars, and the moonlight generously shines upon the earth, making it possible to see the way ahead even at night.
Cao Yingying sat down on a patch of grass, hugged her knees, and let her tears fall drop by drop.
She remembered things from when she was very, very young, when her mother was still alive, and she was happy every day. Later, her mother became pregnant, and everyone said that her mother would give birth to a little brother for her.
But Mother didn't make it to the birth of her younger brother. That day, there was blood everywhere. Basins of bloody water were carried out of the delivery room. She threw herself into Father's arms and cried her heart out. Father was crying too, but no matter how much they cried, Mother couldn't make it. Mother died, and her little brother died in her womb.
For the past ten years, she has been trying to forget that scene, and she thought she had forgotten it.
But the sight of the female goat giving birth reminded her of her deceased mother.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
A voice suddenly rang out from above.
Cao Yingying quickly wiped away her tears with her sleeve before looking up and seeing Zhao Ergou.
She pursed her lips, stood up, and said in a muffled voice, "It's nothing."
She turned and walked back.
Zhao Ergou didn't want to get involved, but he felt sorry for the girl.
He couldn't help but ask, "Why are you crying? What happened? Did Shen Zheng bully you?"
"It's okay, I'm fine!" Cao Yingying walked forward quickly, then suddenly stopped and turned back fiercely, saying, "Don't tell anyone I cried, you hear me?"
Without waiting for Zhao Ergou's reply, she went straight into the field to look for lush and juicy wild grass, which she wanted to take back to nourish the ewe.
She reached out to pull the weeds, but she was too weak and couldn't pull them up at all.
Zhao Ergou went over to help. He didn't say anything, just silently pulled weeds, and the two of them carried a pile of weeds back.
Cheng Wanwan was tidying up the sheep pen, laying out clean and tidy hay. The two lambs had already stood up and were drinking milk.
The ewe was very weak, so she boiled some bran and salt water soup for the ewe to replenish her strength. The ewe probably knew that this was for its own good, and without saying a word, she began to drink the salt water. The bloody smell in the sheepfold gradually dissipated.
The lambs grew very quickly. In just three or four days, they looked completely different from when they were born, and the two lambs were full of energy.
The villagers of Dahe Village now know that the village head's wife can also deliver lambs.
The village head's wife tells everyone she meets what happened that day: "That ewe was so pitiful, her eyes were brimming with tears, she was begging me to save her. I was about to give up, but Aunt Dashan reminded me to cut it open with scissors and then sew it back up, and unexpectedly it really worked..."
Aunt Wang pressed further, "If a woman has a difficult labor and can't give birth, can't they cut open the vagina and take the baby out...?"
"Oh dear, you can't just talk about this like that," the village head's wife shook her head. "To use scissors on someone, that's terrifying..."
Cheng Wanwan said, "If it really comes to that, we'll have no choice but to try anything..."
In modern medical society, using scissors to assist in childbirth is very normal. Seven or eight out of ten women in labor have been cut, and some will even have a cesarean section. As long as both the mother and the child are safe, it is actually nothing. However, this was a big taboo in ancient times. The ancients believed that their bodies and hair were given by their parents, and they would not think of using this trick even at the critical moment of life and death.
Her saying this now is like giving a heads-up; if Hui Niang has a difficult childbirth, she'll have no choice but to break the taboo.
Of course, she didn't want that to happen.
The village women gathered together and chatted, their conversation quickly moving from the birth of goats to Cheng Wanwan's house.
After twenty days of hard work, the house is now completed, and we are just waiting for an auspicious day to move in.
Because of this house, many people in the village have earned some income. Ordinary workers earn 30 coins a day, which is 600 coins in 20 days. Some workers who require a little more skill earn even more.
“My husband earned several hundred coins this time, which is enough to cover the bride price for our son’s wedding.”
“My son is still young, so I’m saving this money to make winter clothes for my family. There’s been a severe drought this year, and I reckon winter will be very cold.”
“My husband doesn’t know how to plan ahead. As soon as he gets his wages, he goes to town and buys a few pounds of meat, which he then eats up in one meal. It’s really a terrible thing.”
"Grandma, which day did you choose to move in?"
Cheng Wanwan said with a smile, "It'll be tomorrow. Everyone will come over to eat wedding cakes then."
If a banquet was held when the roof beam was raised, there's no need to hold another banquet when moving. People who come to congratulate you can just eat some wedding cakes.
She went home early and started making wedding cakes. These wedding cakes are made of flour and sugar, with maybe a few eggs added at most, shaped into round cakes, not big ones. She would give one to each person who came to visit, so that everyone could share in the joy.
One pot is used to make wedding cakes, and the other pot is used to cook braised dishes.
Even while moving, the braised food business didn't stop. We'll move together tomorrow morning after Dashan finishes delivering the goods.
Before dawn, the whole family got up. Grandma Zhao and Grandpa Zhao also came to help. They were both elderly and knew the customs of moving, so they helped prepare things.
A bucket filled to eight-tenths full of rice, with a red cloth inside, containing nine copper coins.
Take water from the water tank in the old house, fill it to seven-tenths full, and put it together with the rice bucket.
Cheng Wanwan took out the new bowls and chopsticks she had bought from the mall long ago. Each person in the family had a set of tableware, and each set had to be tied with a red cloth.
There are also dustpans and brooms; these are also items found in modern new houses.
Once everything is ready, at the auspicious time, you will move to your new home.
The door was opened by Zhao Youyin and Wen Shi, because the old lady believed that the two of them were blessed to have both sons and daughters, and therefore took the responsibility of opening the door.
After moving all these things in, everyone else in the family had to carry something in their hands, even the youngest, Zhao Sidan. It was considered unlucky to enter the house empty-handed on moving day.
With the help of Grandma Zhao and Grandpa Zhao, the move was finally over.
Although there was no need to host a banquet for the villagers, the family still stayed to have a meal together, and both Wen and Sun went into the kitchen to help prepare lunch.
This new kitchen is very large, with two stoves and a small pot behind each stove, so you can stir-fry and stew food at the same time, or boil water at the same time.
Old Zhao nodded repeatedly: "This stove is well repaired; it saves firewood and cooks rice faster."
When he got back, he told his second and third sons to tear down the earthen stove in the house and rebuild it. Anyway, the eldest son's family still had some mud bricks left, so he could just borrow twenty or thirty yuan.
Besides the large kitchen, the other rooms were also very large, each with window panes made of wood that pushed out to the sides, allowing outside light to stream in and making the room extremely bright and spacious.
The floor inside the house is paved with better blue bricks, while the courtyard is paved with rough bricks. Other houses have mud courtyards, which look dirty and messy, but this new courtyard is very tidy. There are two trees planted, and a stone bench under the trees, which was brought down from the mountain. It would be very comfortable to sit on the stone bench and enjoy the cool air in the summer.
Old Zhao secretly thought that he would go up the mountain a few more times and move down some flat stones to put in the yard, which would be quite nice.
Grandma Zhao watched from the backyard, where a bunch of animals were kept, including about a hundred chickens, ducks, and geese, as well as two wolves, a dog, three sheep, and two rabbits. It was quite a lively place.
If other people kept so many animals, it would be a mess. But the eldest daughter-in-law's backyard was very well-maintained, divided into several sections with adobe bricks. The animals all stayed obediently in their own places and didn't run around... Well, some did run around, like Little Dot, who jumped out of his kennel with a leap and led his two little brothers to run around the front yard. Before long, they rushed up the mountain.
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