Chapter 336: People in the Village
Zhang Zhou smiled gratefully and embarrassedly, "Mrs. Chen, look at what I can say. I don't even know how to thank you..."
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Auntie Zhou, what's there to thank or not thank? We'll all be neighbors from now on. My mother and I have a few children and we have to rely on Auntie Zhou, Brother Zhang, and Sister Feng'er for a lot of things. This is all as it should be."
As she spoke, Qin Mengyue had already brought out some rice, flour, bacon, pickled radish, pickled bamboo shoots, and the like. She smiled and said, "Auntie Zhou, these are the mule carts and mules we bought during our exile, along with some miscellaneous food. We were afraid they might be robbed by the government, so we gave them to Young Master Yun for safekeeping. He sent someone to deliver them here yesterday. It's winter now, and we've just arrived, so we don't have time to go to the market. Take these rice, flour, bacon, and pickles back with you for emergency use."
Seeing these things, Zhang Zhou couldn't help but feel even more moved. She quickly declined, saying, "No, no, no! There's nothing in winter, and it's not easy for your family to have left so much. These are too precious. How can I accept them?"
Qin Mengyue pushed the things to her and said with a smile: "This is not worth anything. When your Zhang Yuan comes to help, if he works harder, you can get everything."
After hearing this, Zhang Zhou accepted it with many thanks and made an appointment that after lunch, she would ask Zhang Yuan to come over to help with repairs in the kitchen and other things.
Not long after Zhang Zhou left, someone else came to the door.
But the person was brought here by the enthusiastic Aunt Yang in the morning.
"Madam Qin, are you home? I brought other neighbors to visit you. We'll all be from the same village now, so let's meet each other first and get to know each other so we can take care of each other in the future."
As she spoke, she began to introduce the people who came with her.
"This is Grandma Wu. She lives in the east end. There are fifteen or sixteen people in her family, so it's a big family. This is Sister Liu, this is Aunt Li, and this is Aunt Wang..."
Qin Mengyue and Shen Fenghe smiled as they recognized the hostess of each house, and couldn't help laughing in their hearts. Aunt Yang was really enthusiastic.
Everyone talked to each other. One of them was a young woman who was about the same age as Shen Fenghe and had some looks. She looked Qin Mengyue and Shen Fenghe up and down and said with a little contempt:
"You are the deposed queen and the crown princess, right? I thought those who could enter the palace to become queens and concubines were all stunning beauties, but it seems you are nothing special."
Before she finished speaking, Aunt Yang couldn't help but frown and said something back, "Zhu Huaihua, don't think that just because you put on some rouge from the rouge shop in the city, you think you are better than Xi Shi. Madam Qin and Miss Shen are so beautiful, who wouldn't be dazzled by their looks? Do you think you can compare? I can see clearly that you are too ambitious and still fantasize about being selected as a concubine to enter the palace one day? I think you should give up these thoughts as soon as possible and ask your family to find you a good husband."
When Zhu Huaihua heard this, she was so angry that her face turned black. She pointed at Aunt Yang and said, "Aunt Yang, why do you say that to me? I...my mother said I'm pretty. Why do you belittle me like that?"
Before Aunt Yang could say anything, everyone started to persuade her, "Sister-in-law Yang, don't be offended by a young girl like her. Zhu Huaihua, you should also hurry back. What kind of girl would run around like you? Even if the imperial palace really were to select concubines, with your personality, no matter how pretty you are, you'd be rejected!"
After hearing this, Zhu Huaihua felt even more aggrieved. She glared at Chen Fenghe, covered her face with her hands, turned around and ran away.
Chen Fenghe: “???”
She didn't seem to have done anything, right? Why did it feel like this girl was holding a grudge against her?
Aunt Yang finally sighed and said apologetically, "Seventh Lady, Little Lady Chen, please don't be offended. This Zhu Huaihua has been reckless since she was a child, just like her mother. She relies on her good looks to be arrogant and conceited. I didn't even call her mother, so who knows how she came here..."
Qin Mengyue smiled indifferently and said, "What's there to worry about? We're all neighbors from now on, there's no need to get upset over these little things."
As he said this, he let everyone into the house.
As soon as they came in, everyone was attracted by the mules and mule carts tied to the half-collapsed barn in the yard.
"Oh my! This is really a mule! And there's a mule cart! This must cost a lot of money, right? The Yang family's daughter-in-law said that the new family has a mule cart, but we didn't believe it. Turns out they really do!" Grandma Wu said with envy.
"This is really a rare thing! Alas! I don't know how long it will take for our family to be able to afford such a good mule and mule cart!" Aunt Wang also said.
"Alas... let's not talk about the old ox, but this little mule. If I have one, my husband won't have to grunt and pull the plow himself when he goes to work in the fields..." This is what Mrs. Liu said.
Aunt Li, who was standing by, smiled and teased, "Liu's wife, I know you and your husband have a good relationship. You care about your husband, but you don't have to show off your affection in front of everyone, right? If I were you, you should talk to your husband about this in bed. You'll see he'll be so happy that he'll push you over several times a night..."
This was a crude remark, but country women who had already given birth to children were always bold and unrestrained. Besides, everyone here was a woman, and the only ones left were Shen Yichuan, Shen Qingxing, and Xiao Yunhao, three ignorant little fellows. Therefore, no one took it as an offense and laughed.
Mrs. Liu, who was teased, blushed and chased after Aunt Li to beat her.
Qin Mengyue and Shen Fenghe both blushed. Qin Mengyue was born in a noble family and later entered the palace, where the rules were strict. She had never heard such words before.
As for Chen Fenghe, such bold words really surprised her in this ancient time.
Everyone laughed and chatted for a while before leaving.
It was similar to what I heard before. This village was originally settled in Datong Prefecture in the west. Later, most of Datong Prefecture was occupied by the Northern Rong. In order to escape the war, they fled all the way here.
Although Youzhou was often invaded by the Northern Rong, at least those who came to invade in the past twenty years were all stragglers from the Northern Rong, and Youzhou was heavily guarded by the Dayu Dynasty, so it was not lost and the Youzhou people became refugees who lost their homes and became displaced. More importantly, no matter which prefecture, city or county, land registration is very important. Land needs to be allocated to refugees to resettle them. Therefore, many prefectures and counties refused to accept refugees who were not registered in the prefecture.
They were lucky. They came to this village three years ago because the village had just been massacred by the scattered soldiers of the Northern Rong. Even the government felt that it was unlucky. The harvest of the land was not good, so they would rather leave it idle than be ignored. Their village chief then took the fleeing villagers to ask the government for the land and abandoned houses here, and settled down.
However, because the land is half desertified and half saline, it is extremely barren, so the villagers live a tight life, and their clothes are patched up and look very shabby.
After Aunt Yang and the others left, Qin Mengyue couldn't help but frown and said, "Feng He, from what they said, I'm afraid we'll be in the same boat in the future, living off our savings... I think we should cancel the idea of hiring Zhang Yuan to help us without paying him. We can save some money... I'll go talk to Aunt Zhou later..."
Chen Fenghe hurriedly stopped her, saying, "Mom, we can't save this money. Forget about anything else, just talk about the kitchen stove. If we don't repair it, do we have to keep cooking over the fire? And there's such a big hole in the courtyard wall now. We have mules and carts, and we have white flour and bacon in the house. Isn't this inviting thieves? Even if the people here are simple and honest, what if they are scoundrels from other villages? Taking a step back, let's not only think about our family's property, but also about our own safety. Isn't it asking Brother Zhang to come over every day to help, on the one hand, to repair things, and on the other hand, to tell others that we get along well with our neighbors. If anything happens, there will be someone to help, which is also a deterrent, right?"
Qin Mengyue naturally agreed with what Shen Fenghe said, but she still said worriedly, "But... we don't have much money. We should be able to get by from winter to spring, but when we plant crops in spring, they say the harvest won't be good in the fall. How can this money last more than half a year?"
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Mother, don't worry about that. Money is easy. I can set traps and hunt. If I go into the mountains and kill a wild roe deer, the sales will be enough for us to live for ten days or half a month. Moreover, I also know medical skills. I can set up a stall as a quack doctor in Youzhou City and earn some money from my consultations. Even if I can't make any money from all these, don't we still have His Highness? His Highness is busy dealing with matters at court and may not be able to stay by our side all the time, but His Highness will definitely not let us starve."
Qin Mengyue felt relieved after hearing Chen Fenghe's advice. She said apologetically, "Alas... Fenghe, you still have your own ideas and opinions. It's just... those methods you mentioned are really difficult for you."
Chen Fenghe said, "Mom, please don't say these things. I can only do these things if you don't mind me showing up in public again, right?"
Qin Mengyue sighed and smiled, "Feng He, I've seen you do so many things along the way, and I admire you and feel sorry for you. If you hadn't suffered, how could a girl like you learn so many things? I don't have any special skills, so how could I use those tricks to restrain you? If that were the case, I'm afraid we would have died in exile long ago. When my father was alive, he often said that women are as good as men. I have a personality like my mother, so it's a pity that I couldn't do the same. You can do whatever you want without worry. I'm not the kind of person who restricts her children even though she can't do it herself."
Chen Fenghe listened and smiled, "Mom, I feel relieved when you say that. Don't worry, when the boat reaches the bridge, it will work out. When the car reaches the mountain, there will always be a way. There will always be a way."
After lunch, Zhang Yuan arrived as expected.
He used to be a farmer and also knew how to build houses. He immediately picked up a shovel and started digging mud in an open space outside the yard.
Qin Mengyue and the other little ones had never seen this before, so they stood aside and watched with interest.
Shen Yichuan looked up and asked, "Sister, what is Brother Zhang doing?"
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Well... I'm not too sure about this. I guess they're making loess bricks for building walls, right? You can ask Brother Zhang himself."
Zhang Yuan was a simple and honest man, usually not talkative, but he and Shen Fenghe had been through life and death together on the road of exile. Hearing this, he raised his head, smiled a little embarrassedly, and said, "Miss Shen is very knowledgeable. I'm making loess bricks. First I collect the soil, then mix it with water, and lay it into square bricks, and then burn it on the fire..."
Xiao Yunhao looked up seriously and asked, "Brother Zhang, why do you want to burn it with fire?"
Zhang Yuan looked at the three adorable little guys in front of him and said with a smile, "Look at this loess. It's very soft, right? It falls apart if you pinch it. Only after it's burned can it become very hard and can be used to build a wall that's sturdy and won't fall down."
"Oh! So that's how it is!" The three little guys didn't know whether they understood it or not, and their three little heads nodded as if they suddenly realized something.
Zhang Yuan quickly dug a lot of loess. It had just snowed, so the soil was already somewhat moist, but it was frozen hard.
Zhang Yuan went to the half-collapsed woodshed in the yard and got some wood. He started a fire to soften the loess a little, then got some ice from the river to increase the humidity. After the loess mud was mixed, he began to make the mud into bricks.
Shen Yichuan and the other three little guys watched with interest, and finally couldn't help but said: "Brother Zhang, we want to help too."
Zhang Yuan immediately shook his head when he heard this and said, "How can that be possible? You are all young masters and young ladies, not meant for such rough work. Your clothes will get dirty soon."
Chen Fenghe listened from the side and said with a smile: "Brother Zhang, give them some mud and let them play with it. If they really want to help, just tell them to work. It won't get in the way. I think these things are very interesting and it's good to learn them."
After hearing this, Zhang Yuan agreed.
Chen Fenghe carried the bamboo basket on his back and turned to Qin Mengyue and said, "Mom, it's still early. I'm going to the mountain to see if I can set some traps. Maybe I can catch some small prey."
Qin Mengyue listened and nodded, but still said worriedly: "Then you should be careful and don't come back too late."
Chen Fenghe smiled and agreed to go.
Soon they entered the mountain, which was covered with dense deciduous trees. She symbolically set a few traps and then casually took out two pheasants and a wild rabbit from her space.
With so many things in the space, she naturally didn't need to go hunting specifically.
But today is only the first day, so it is not appropriate to take out large prey such as roe deer, wild boars and wolves. They can only be taken out in the name of traps after a few days.
But there is no need to worry too much about small prey such as pheasants and rabbits.
There weren't many wild vegetables to pick in the mountains during the winter, so Chen Fenghe took a short walk and headed back home. On the way back, she paid special attention to a patch of land at the foot of the mountain.
The soil here looks different from the brown or yellow soil in other places. It is more like a red soil.
She had noticed it when she came, and now when she looked at it carefully again, she couldn't help but smile.
As she had guessed, this was high-quality clay that could be used to make red bricks or exquisite pottery and porcelain.
Looking at the large area from the foot of the mountain to the back of their house, the soil all looked like this.
Red bricks are stronger than the loess bricks made by Zhang Yuan. Even in the era before she traveled through time, red bricks were a very common building material twenty or thirty years earlier.
Of course, with clay, it can not only be used to make red bricks and ceramics, but also has many other uses.
Looking at the soil, Chen Fenghe couldn't help but have an idea in his mind...
She returned home quickly and saw that Zhang Yuan had already prepared a lot of bricks. He had built a simple semi-enclosed cave with stones, then placed the bricks into the cave, put a lot of firewood on top, and lit it to burn.
When firing, he started digging soil and mud to make brick molds. After one kiln was fired, he would fire the next one.
In the afternoon, they had burned out about a hundred yuan.
Zhang Yuan said, "These bricks aren't enough to build the courtyard wall and the kitchen, but they're enough for the stove. I'll build the stove first, so it'll be more convenient for you to cook... and..."
He glanced at the woodshed and saw that the few remaining firewood there had been almost used up.
"I'm going to go to the mountains to chop some firewood tomorrow morning. I'm afraid I'll need more firewood to make bricks tomorrow."
Qin Mengyue saw that although he was taciturn, he had a clear and organized mind when doing these tasks, and she couldn't help but admire Shen Fenghe's foresight.
She had never even thought that just to repair the walls and the stove, she would have to start with digging the soil and burning the bricks.
If she really rejected Aunt Zhou, she and Feng He, two weak women and three children would be left. Not to mention that it would probably take half a year to repair the wall, they would also have to go up the mountain to chop firewood themselves.
Qin Mengyue smiled and said, "Thank you very much. You don't have to come too early tomorrow. It won't be too late to come after the sun rises."
Chen Fenghe took out a pheasant from the bamboo basket and said, "Brother Zhang, I'm lucky too. This is my first time in the mountains, and I caught two pheasants and a rabbit. Take this pheasant back and make soup for Sister Feng'er and Aunt Zhou to nourish them. And these twenty coins are for today's wages..."
Zhang Yuan was unwilling to accept it when he heard it, and quickly waved his hands and said, "Madam Qin, Madam Chen, this is unacceptable. I've seen people hiring long-term workers before, and they usually pay me once a year or every three months. You don't have to pay me every day. And this wild pheasant, just one chicken is enough for two days of my wages..."
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Brother Zhang, just take care of your men. We're new here, and we have a lot to buy. How can we do without some money? As for the pheasant, consider it my gift to thank you for taking care of Yichuan and Qingxing during my exile. It would be too polite if you don't accept it. Besides, Aunt Zhou is old, and Sister Feng'er is over four months pregnant. They need to nourish their bodies."
When Zhang Yuan heard about his mother and wife, he hesitated for a moment, but still accepted it.
Chen Fenghe continued, "Also, Brother Zhang, just continue to burn bricks tomorrow. There's no need to rush to build the stove. I have other uses for these bricks."
Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment, but didn't say much. He nodded and agreed.
After Zhang Yuan left, Qin Mengyue asked curiously, "Feng He, what are you going to do with so many bricks? Are you going to build a wall first?"
Chen Fenghe shook her head and said with a smile: "Mom, you will know tomorrow."
That night, they made chicken soup with wild pheasants. Chen Fenghe also pulled out ginseng and dried mushrooms from her space to make soup. Half of the rabbit was stewed with potatoes, and the other half was stir-fried with refreshing sour bamboo shoots. The staple food was millet porridge.
Qin Mengyue asked Chen Fenghe to leave half of the food out, saying that Xiao Yunshuo would be back in the evening.
After hearing this, Chen Fenghe recalled what happened last night and her face couldn't help but blush.
He is coming back tonight. Will I have to sleep in the same room with him like last night?
Seeing her like this, Qin Mengyue thought she was still shy about what happened last night, and couldn't help but smile: "Silly girl, what's there to be ashamed of? This is how a couple should be. Otherwise, how can they have children and continue their offspring? But you didn't make much noise last night. Are you afraid that the little ones might hear and get embarrassed? Don't worry, I'll keep them under control and won't let them run into that room..."
Chen Fenghe: “…”
This is a huge misunderstanding...
"Mom, stop talking..." Chen Fenghe stopped her weakly.
As they were talking, Xiao Yunshuo had already walked to the door silently. Seeing them like this, he smiled and asked, "What's wrong?"
When the three little guys saw him, they all ran over happily and shouted, "Uncle Yun!"
They were no longer afraid of Xiao Yunshuo's disguised pockmarked face, because every time Xiao Yunshuo would buy them some small gadgets or food, and he had already bribed them.
It was the same this time. Xiao Yunshuo took out three little sugar men and handed them to them.
The three little ones exclaimed in delight.
When Chen Fenghe saw Xiao Yunshuo, her already red face turned even redder.
Qin Mengyue pursed her lips and walked over to him, smiling, "I'm talking about you, who else can I talk about?"
Chen Fenghe was afraid that Qin Mengyue would say something embarrassing again, so she hurried over and asked, "Why isn't Yuan Xu here?"
Xiao Yunshuo glanced at her and then said, "Yuan Xu is waiting outside. Be careful of anyone watching nearby."
After hearing this, Chen Fenghe's nerves couldn't help but tense up for a moment. He nodded and said seriously, "We do need to be more vigilant."
As she spoke, she brought out the food she had left for you and said, "You haven't eaten yet, have you? I specially left some food for you. I'll heat it up and you can eat it."
After a while, the food was heated up.
Xiao Yunshuo sat down by the fire and ate, laughing as he said, "This wild pheasant and rabbit meat are both fresh. Did you go hunting in the mountains again?"
Chen Fenghe nodded and said, "This place is not far from the mountain. I went into the mountain during the day and set a few traps. I was lucky enough to catch two at once. You will have something to eat tonight."
Xiao Yunshuo looked up and looked at her deeply. He wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't.
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