Chapter 155: Paradise
The next morning, after eating, Sang Yu took a walk by the stream, dug the ground with a shovel for a while, and finally felt that it was about time, so he slowly walked towards Xiaohu's house.
She timed her arrival very cleverly, almost when she had just finished breakfast and was still waiting to go out.
The courtyard gate of Xiaohu's house was still closed, but the door to the main hall was open.
She stood at the door and shouted twice through the fence. Soon she saw Xiaohu running out of the main room.
"Sister Sang, why did you come to see me so early today? Is there something wrong?" He tried to put on his usual smile, but the slightly red eyes had already betrayed his true emotions.
It was the first time that Sang Yu saw him like this. She was slightly stunned: "Brother Xiaohu, am I here at the wrong time and disturbing you?"
"No, I'm fine, so there's no need to disturb me. Come in and sit for a while." As he spoke, Xiaohu opened the gate and moved aside to motion her to come in and sit down.
"I won't sit down. It's nothing serious. I just want to ask you to help me rent an axe and ask where there's a bamboo forest so I can cut some bamboo to take home."
Sang Yu was very considerate and didn't really follow him in. Since the other person was in a bad mood, she decided not to stay and make things difficult for him.
"As for the hatchet, I happen to have one right here. Wait a minute, I'll go find it." She didn't want to go in, and Xiaohu didn't force her. He asked her to wait a minute and then turned around and walked into the house.
Sang Yu stood at the gate and watched him enter the main hall. She seemed to vaguely see an old, hunched figure sitting in the dark corner of the main hall, but she couldn't see it clearly.
Could he be Xiaohu's elder? Then why hadn't they met after so many visits?
Xiaohu is very quick, or perhaps he is an organized person. He puts the rented or returned things in order every day so that they can be easily taken.
He went out with a hatchet, turned it over with the tip facing down and handed it to Sang Yu: "I just checked, there is a small chip on the tip, it won't be a problem for cutting bamboo."
"As for the bamboo forest, walk up the stream from where you live. It's on the first hill on the left after you exit the canyon."
Sang Yu wrote down the information he said and thanked him with a smile: "Thank you, Brother Xiaohu."
On the way back, Sang Yu was thinking that there were mountains outside the stream. Seeing that the source was so small, she thought the stream was gushing out from underground.
After arriving home, she wanted to go cut bamboo alone with a bamboo basket on her back, but Sang Xingjia stuck to her and insisted on going with her.
He even held up his hands with his palms facing outwards to show her: "Little sister, look, my hands are almost healed. If you're really worried, just think of them as someone helping you carry things."
Ever since his hand was injured, his family didn't let him do many things. Even his request to take turns digging the vegetable garden with Sang Yongjing was rejected. He really had nothing to do.
"Well... okay, you come with me." What he said made sense, and Sang Yu quickly agreed.
The two men carried bamboo baskets and hatchets and walked along the stream towards its source. After passing through a mountain tunnel that was only wide enough for two people to pass side by side, the view suddenly opened up.
A large field surrounded by mountains suddenly appeared before their eyes, with a stream flowing through it, and its source seemed to be in the mountains farther away.
These fields all show signs of having been cultivated, and each acre of field is separated from other fields by ridges, in an orderly manner.
But at this time, there was only turned soil in the field, and no plants.
"No wonder..." Sang Yu murmured softly.
She asked why she had never seen farmland nearby, and wondered if there were too many mountains here and it was not suitable for farming, so they should open up wasteland farther away.
It turned out that she was just blinded by a leaf. A large area of fertile land was right in front of her, but she didn't see it.
Now she understood better why the villagers chose to live in Qingxi Village for several generations instead of moving to Lingnan City.
In the farming era, in the eyes of many lower-class people, as long as they had a piece of land, their family would not starve to death, not to mention that the land here was fertile, the terrain was flat and very hidden.
If war breaks out, the whole family can move into this paradise and block the entrance, making it a natural shelter.
Sang Xingjia, who was standing by, came back to his senses after a brief shock. He vaguely felt that she seemed to have said something, so he asked, "Little sister, what did you just say? I didn't hear clearly."
"Nothing, just some emotion, what a beautiful field."
Sang Yu sighed again. She only hated that her family was exiled at the wrong time.
If we had come here a few decades earlier and reclaimed a piece of wasteland in this area, we wouldn't have to go too far to farm in the future. We could just go to the fields every now and then to check on them and weed them.
Unfortunately, time waits for no one.
After some emotion, the two continued forward, heading towards the nearest mountain on the left.
From a distance, Sang Yu felt that there was something wrong with the shape of the mountain, and only discovered the reason when he got closer.
The side of the mountain facing them, from the hillside down, had basically been cultivated. Occasionally, a few trees that were too large were not cut down, but their bark was burned black.
Sang Xingjia touched the scorched bark and couldn't help but think it was a bit exaggerated: "Is it really that serious? They've planted fields all the way up the mountain."
"Brother, you're just like Emperor Hui of Jin who said, 'Why not eat meat?' Why not? Once the mountain outside the canyon is cut down, our family will also have to reclaim land."
Sang Yu's face was full of bitterness. If possible, she would have liked her family to open up wasteland directly on the back of the mountain. However, thinking about the sunlight and dense trees, she stopped thinking about it.
"Ah? Don't we have ways to make money? Why do we need to open up wasteland?"
"Having a way to make money is one thing, having a farm at home is another. Besides, don't forget, brother, we received grain to plant and we have to pay grain taxes next year, so we must farm."
Sang Yu has never forgotten this. As long as he is registered there, he cannot escape from farming and paying grain taxes.
If they had money, they could hire tenants to help with farming, but there was no way their family could get that much money in such a short period of time, so sooner or later they would have to do it themselves.
Ignoring Sang Xingjia, who stood there stunned by the news, she continued to climb. When she reached the back of the mountain, a vast expanse of emerald green bamboo forest appeared before her.
There are many remaining bamboo roots at the edge of the bamboo forest, which should have been cut down by villagers before.
She found a clean big rock to sit down and rest, waiting for Sang Xingjia to come over.
My eyes wandered around randomly, wondering if there were any wild animals like rabbits and pheasants here.
When Sang Xingjia and others came to their senses, Sang Yu was no longer around them, so they hurriedly tried to catch up.
He was not in good physical condition and had to climb to the ridge with great difficulty, and then control the inertia of the downward rush.
When he ran to Sang Yu, he could only breathe heavily and couldn't speak at all.
In order to steady his body, he placed his hand on a thin sapling.
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