Chapter 048 Chapter 48: Trouble

A few days after the wheat was planted, the locusts finally dispersed.

Everyone in the village heard the news that the relief food had been approved, and they were relieved as they had just received food from the "Snake Goddess".

Since he is not busy recently, Lin Yue decided to find someone to help renovate the house.

The house of my uncle's family has been a little run-down because no one has lived there for many years. But fortunately, it is a house with earthen walls and tiles, which is better than where they live now. The roof of this small house is still thatched.

In the evening, Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong discussed how to plan the house.

In addition to the necessary repairs, Lin Yue also wanted to build two more rooms next to the east wall. In the village, three-room structures like this are usually used as door stoves, which can be used for cooking and heating in winter.

But Lin Yue didn't like this structure very much. There were no range hoods in that era. Not only would the house be filled with smoke every time he cooked, but in the summer, when he used a big pot to cook, the kang was so hot that he couldn't sleep on it.

Her idea was to build two closets, one for the kitchen and the other for the toilet and washroom. She was really fed up with open-air toilets.

There is another kind of toilet in the village, called "big circle". In the past, when people raised pigs, it was connected to the pigpen. In order to collect farm manure, even though individuals are not allowed to raise pigs now, many families still use this kind of toilet.

Lin Yue was always nervous every time he went to this kind of toilet, fearing that he would fall, so he was determined not to use this kind of toilet.

Zhang Yuandong looked at the sketch she drew and made a pertinent suggestion: "If you build the annex here, it will block the light from the main room. It would be better to build it on the south side, close to the east, and raise the east wall at the same time." This layout is called "South House" in the countryside. Xiaotian Village is too poor and few people build South Houses, so Lin Yue didn't know this commonly used layout.

Zhang Yuandong's uncle's house is next to Zhang's aunt's house to the west and Zhang Zhixi's house to the east. His family has a habit of leaning on the wall to look at other people's houses, even when it's quiet, and even more so when it's busy. Zhang Yuandong has a deep memory of this. In the past, if someone in his uncle's house spoke a little louder, a bunch of people would immediately appear on the wall and look out.

When Lin Yue heard Zhang Yuandong say this, he shuddered.

Rural people love to watch the fun. Usually, if someone quarrels or argues, a group of people will gather nearby. Lin Yue also encountered his family going to join in the fun, but they were all quiet and nothing special. He never thought that they were so addicted.

She asked, "Wouldn't it be better to build the annex on the east wall? Can't the window of the main room be moved? The annex doesn't need to be too big."

Zhang Yuandong shook his head.

Lin Yue was helpless. What she feared most was not being able to protect her privacy. Before she even moved in, she was already worried about how to get along with her new neighbors.

The next morning, Zhang Yuandong first went to Zhang Zhiqiang's house and talked about the renovation of the house, and asked him to recommend a few young people who knew how to build houses to help him build two private rooms.

When building a house in the countryside, people would look for people with good relationships to help each other. Normally, Zhang Zhiqiang wouldn't need to help find people. However, their family had already split up, and Zhang Yuandong and Lin Yue might not be willing to continue to stay with the people who were on good terms with Zhang Zhiwei's family. So they could only ask Zhang Zhiqiang to help.

There are quite a few people in the village who are willing to come and be helpers. Zhang Yuandong is a capable man. Although some people look down on him for being just a small policeman, the salary of a policeman is much higher than that of an ordinary worker. Many people are secretly jealous of him.

Zhang Zhiqiang thought about it for a while before saying, "If you want to build a house, you need wood and stones. You definitely don't have wood, but I happen to have a few old locust tree trunks that have been processed. They won't be used in the next few years, so you can use them first. As for the stones, you need to find more people to carry them back from the mountain. Since you are building a house in such a hurry, you need to prepare better food when the time comes."

The wood used to build the house cannot be cut and used immediately, it must be processed before use. Zhang Zhiqiang's good intention made Zhang Yuandong nod in agreement without refusing.

During the day, Lin Yue took the two little ones with him and pulled out all the vegetables in the yard.

Most of the idle houses in the village have people growing vegetables in their yards, and the brigade generally doesn't care as long as it doesn't cause any disputes.

Uncle Zhang's yard may not look big, but there is more than one family growing vegetables in it. They all have a tacit understanding of using fences or hemp ropes to surround the vegetables they grow to prevent others from picking them by mistake.

Because people have been growing vegetables in the yard, there are no dangerous animals and not much grass. It's just a pity that the stone paths that Uncle Zhang used to build in the yard have all been cleared away.

Lin Yue had already notified her neighbors some time ago. Some families knew that her family was going to move there, so they processed the vegetables they planted in advance. Some families were simply unreasonable and insisted on waiting until the season was over before picking the vegetables.

Lin Yue was not used to them, so when the time came, he pulled all the vegetables out and sent them to the brigade headquarters. Whoever had the vegetables could go to the brigade headquarters to get them.

As a result, someone came to the door to make trouble the next day.

There were two families who came to cause trouble. One was Zhang Zhixiang's family. They came in full force, not a single person was missing, including their two eldest grandsons. However, the one who came earlier was Wang Baodong's mother Liu Aihua. Wang Baodong also came, but he was scared after being beaten last time, so he was hiding far away and looking over here, and didn't dare to really come over.

Liu Aihua also planted vegetables in this yard. Last time Lin Yue went to her house to ask about it, she rudely scolded him and told him to pull them out, saying that she would not pull them out no matter what.

Ever since her precious son was beaten by Zhang Yuandong last time, she has been looking for trouble with Sun Hongmei. After all, it was Sun Hongmei who instigated her son.

She also knew that her son was unreasonable, and was afraid that Wang Baodong’s deeds would be investigated by the team, so she did not dare to cause trouble for Lin Yue openly. However, every time she saw Lin Yue, she would secretly say "Pooh" and curse him as a "fox spirit".

Anyway, Wang Baodong was beaten because Sun Hongmei instigated it, and Lin Yue was blamed for not being a faithful wife and seducing men. Her son did nothing wrong.

This time, Liu Aihua finally seized an opportunity and felt that she was right and could vent her anger. She sat at the door of Uncle Zhang's house and yelled, "You bastard! I worked so hard to grow these life-saving vegetables, and you, a little bastard, ruined them like this! It's really unjust!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, he came up with a bunch of unpleasant words, each one dirtier than the last.

Liu Aihua's fighting ability is much stronger than Sun Hongmei's. Although Sun Hongmei's character is not very good, she has to save face. No matter how evil her actions are, she has to find some excuses to cover up her shame. Liu Aihua is different. She is just a scoundrel and a scoundrel. She is not afraid of being laughed at. She can curse at anything dirty and smelly, and her voice is still loud, for fear that others will not appreciate her charm.

Lin Yue quickly covered the two guys' ears and angrily scolded, "Liu Aihua, stop spitting shit here. I reminded you several days ago to take care of the vegetables you planted, but you didn't do it. What are you doing here so shamelessly?"

The noise of the quarrel soon attracted several nearby families. Guixiang, the eldest granddaughter of Aunt Zhang, ran over and took the two children back to her home. It was not suitable for children to be in such an occasion. If they got bumped or bruised, it would be a serious matter.

Zhang Zhixi's family in the east did not come out. They all leaned on the wall to watch the excitement. From the sixty-year-old Zhang Zhixi and his wife to his grandchildren who were less than ten years old, all ten people in the family were there. There was no room for them to move around, so they hid behind the door, just sticking their heads out to watch. Everyone held a handful of beans in their hands, chewing them while watching the excitement.

Lin Yue accidentally glanced at that big family and was completely speechless.

Seeing more and more people getting excited, Liu Aihua became even more excited: "Bah! Who said this house is yours? Zhang Zhigang's family fled to the northeast, they are not dead, it is not your turn to inherit the estate! Everyone, tell me, is this right?"

Lin Yue really didn't want to argue with her. It was useless to reason with such a person. But she was blocking the door of his house. Lin Yue couldn't hit her in public, so he just wanted to get rid of her quickly: "This house was bought by my family. If you have any doubts, come with me to the brigade headquarters to clarify. Don't make trouble here."

Liu Aihua was unwilling to go to the brigade: "Why should I go with you to the brigade? Everyone knows that you have a good relationship with that old woman Su Ximei and her family. When the time comes, won't they support you no matter what you say? You said you paid for it, but I didn't see you paying, so how can I know whether it's true or false! You, a vixen, took advantage of the fact that your husband was not at home in the past few years. I don't know what shameful things you did behind their backs to make their family help you so much! Bah! You vixen, I think you should be charged with the crime of being a slut and put in a pig cage!"

The more he talked, the more nonsense he became. It was obvious that he was deliberately trying to take revenge on Wang Baodong for being beaten.

Lin Yue really didn't know how to deal with someone who splashed dirty water on others. She had been here for so long that she already knew the way things were. It was a terrible thing for a woman to have a bad reputation. She was so angry that she clenched her hands into fists and was ready to make a move: "If you don't want this stinky mouth anymore, I'll sew it up for you with a needle! You are full of thieves and whores, and you think everyone else is the same as you!"

The people watching the excitement were also not used to her foul mouth. Fearing that Lin Yue would get angry, they quickly grabbed her and said, "Auntie Liu, you have to provide evidence when you speak. You can't slander someone without evidence. Be careful, or her man will come to your house after work and beat you up!"

Aunt Zhang had sent her grandson to the brigade early in the morning to call for help. Now she also scolded him, "Liu Aihua, what are you talking about here? We have all seen how the Far Eastern wives behave. You want to slander someone's innocence with just a few words. Can you ruin a woman's reputation so easily?"

Although Liu Aihua was a little afraid of Zhang Yuandong, she straightened her chest when she thought about her age and knew that Zhang Yuandong would have to call her auntie.