Thinking of his uncle's fierce appearance with the axe yesterday, and the scene of his aunt hitting people with a wooden stick, Zhou Dajin and the other three were so frightened that they ran away quickly.
With nothing to do at noon, Zhao Guihua asked Zhou Laoda and his five sons to move out the storage room and make a room for Xingxing.
Cleaning the room was quick, but the problem was there weren't any extra beds. Zhou Laoda could do simple carpentry work, and he figured it out himself. The two beds in the house were just two long benches with bed boards on top.
"We can't let Xingxing sleep on this creaky bed; we have to make her a decent one." Zhao Guihua just didn't want to make Xingxing suffer.
"It's okay, there's no need for a fancy bed. Xingxing can sleep in the same bed as everyone else." She's content as long as she has a bed to sleep in; Xingxing isn't picky.
Although sleeping on a hard bed board was a bit uncomfortable, my aunt and the others could sleep on it, and so could Xingxing.
However, Zhou Laoda's carpentry skills were really lacking, and Zhao Guihua disagreed with letting Zhou Laoda do the work. She thought of using wild boar meat as payment to hire a professional carpenter from the village to make the bed.
"Why don't we just build a kang (heated brick bed)? I know how to make those, so we won't have to hire anyone." Old Zhou thought back to last winter when it snowed and it was very cold. They didn't have enough quilts, and their whole family almost froze to death.
This kang (heated brick bed) is much more convenient. We can prepare more firewood so that we won't have to worry too much even if it snows.
It's not that no one in the village makes kang (heated brick beds), but in the past two years, everyone has been busy farming and producing food. In addition, the climate in the south is relatively warm, so no one is in a hurry to build kang.
So only a few families built kang (heated brick beds), and most people slept on beds. When Zhou Laoda brought up this idea, Zhao Guihua thought it was feasible, but said, "But we still need to plow the land and sow seeds, so we probably won't have time to build kang."
“I’ll come back to build it at noon and in the evening. It might take about ten days to finish. In the meantime, let Xingxing sleep with you, and I’ll sleep on the floor.” The five boys slept sideways on one bed. In this hot weather, Zhou Laoda didn’t want to squeeze in with the children, so he spread the grain mat on the floor and lay down to sleep.
They learned how to weave the bamboo tassels by secretly observing others after they came to the South. It took Zhou Lao a lot of effort at first, but at least they learned how to weave them.
Later, everyone in Yegou Village followed him to learn how to weave rice mats. There was no other way; in their area, rice could be grown for two seasons, and after harvesting, it was dried on rice mats.
There's no need to collect it at night; just roll up the rice basket. If it rains, simply carry the rolled-up rice basket inside. It's very convenient.
The Zhou family was so focused on building a kang (heated brick bed) for Xingxing that they completely forgot about the possibility of Xingxing's family coming looking for them.
Once the decision was made to build a kang (heated brick bed), the preparation of soil and sand had to begin. Since there was no money to buy bricks, they had to make their own mud bricks. These mud bricks did not need to be fired; they were made by mixing sticky soil with water, shaping it into bricks, and then drying them before use.
The quality is definitely not as good as that of brick masonry, but as long as it is built solidly, it is also very durable.
So that afternoon, Zhou Laoda's family didn't go to work in the fields. Instead, they prepared materials for making a kang (a heated brick bed). First, they dug up yellow soil at the foot of the mountain, and then they went to the stream to collect sand.
Xingxing was also very busy with a small dustpan, following behind her brothers to carry soil back and forth. By the time they went to the stream in the evening, she had become a little dirt person, her little face covered with yellow dirt.
Luckily, it was hot, so we could take a bath right there at the stream. The quintuplets took off their clothes and jumped into the water, splashing Xingxing all over.
She also wanted to take off her clothes and go into the water, but Zhao Guihua stopped her and said with a smile, "We are girls, we shouldn't be like these rough men. We should pay attention to our image. Auntie will wash your face, hands and feet clean too."
"Auntie, just wash my face for me. I'll sit on the rock and wash my hands and feet myself," Xingxing said, her eyes fixed on the direction of the marshland. She whispered in Zhao Guihua's ear, "Auntie, there are lots of eels in the marshland over there. Let's catch some and take them home to eat."
Zhao Guihua was taken aback at first, then her eyes flickered, and she said in a low voice, "How did Xingxing know there were eels in the marshland?"
"Well, I can't really explain it either, but I just feel like there are eels there. Xingxing's intuition is never wrong." Xingxing frowned, her rosy face full of worry, wondering how to explain to Aunt Guihua that she could see things that others couldn't.
Seeing the little girl so distressed, Zhao Guihua immediately couldn't bear to ask any more questions. She just had some doubts. Xingxing's intuition seemed to be very accurate; she seemed to be able to see things that others couldn't.
However, this is just her guess. Whether it's true or not, this matter absolutely cannot be known to outsiders, otherwise Xingxing will be in trouble.
She pretended to be nonchalant and said, "We still have a lot of meat left at home. We're not in a hurry to catch eels. We'll catch them in a few days. We can't tell anyone about this, otherwise someone else will catch them and we won't have any meat to eat."
Xingxing covered her mouth and nodded vigorously, speaking even more softly, "Especially, we can't let Zhou Laosan know."
"Mom, what secrets are you and Xingxing talking about? Why won't you let us hear?" Zhou Wufu was a little jealous; he also wanted to whisper something to Xingxing.
"What can I say? I just asked Xingxing if she wanted meat soup or stir-fry for dinner. Whatever she likes, I'll make it," Zhao Guihua replied perfunctorily.
Then she saw her youngest son getting restless and quickly shouted, "Wufu, you're not allowed to take your pants off, or I'll spank you!"
The stars are here, but we can't show them anywhere that shouldn't be shown.
"Mom, I promise I won't take my pants off. Can I have fried loach and stir-fried pork slices for dinner?" Zhou Wufu asked innocently.
Zhao Guihua laughed and scolded, "You've already eaten fried loach, and you still want stir-fried meat slices? Meat slices can only be used to make wild vegetable soup. Stop playing around and hurry up and help scoop out the sand."
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