Time flies, and it's already mid-December. The continuous winter rains that have lasted for one or two months in Ba County have already begun.
In the misty drizzle, rows of brand-new thatched-roof houses appeared and disappeared by the fields and at the foot of the mountains.
The major renovation campaign has ended, and the last house to be renovated was Xu Genyou's.
Because he not only repaired his own house, but also helped Xu Genbao, who had not returned to the village, to build a house.
The two small courtyard houses, with tiled roofs and wide eaves above the main hall, beautiful door covers, and wooden latticework, are currently the best houses in Xujia Village.
Those who built less only had three main rooms and a corner house, plus a thatched shed built against the wall, and that was their home to shelter from the wind and rain.
By this point, apart from the Shi family who gave up on building their house, the Jiang family who moved their house, and Li Laoshi who said he wouldn't build a house but would only guard the granary, all the other people in Xujia Village had demolished their shacks and basically had their own new houses.
With the roof covered by straw mats, each family was tidying up their home.
After working tirelessly for over a month, the people of Xujia Village were exhausted and needed to stop and rest.
Since it's raining outside and we can't do farm work, we stay home building stoves, knocking down floors, plastering walls, weaving bamboo to build chicken coops, repairing courtyards, and doing other odd jobs.
The only house under construction in the village is Xia Xiucai's house.
The wooden frame of the bamboo-woven mud wall has been formed. Tian Gui and Xu Genyou put the cut pieces of hemp rope and straw into the yellow mud, then spread the yellow mud on the bamboo weaving, smoothing both sides. When the yellow mud is half dry, another layer of white lime needs to be applied.
Although it is a bamboo wall with an earthen wall, this kind of straw-fiber mud is very sturdy. The thick mud wall is enough to protect the bamboo inside from rotting and decaying for decades.
If the mud on the walls falls off, the bamboo weaving can be dismantled, and new bamboo and mud can be replaced to make it a new house again.
The carpenter left several large windows in the scholar's house, so that when you sat inside and opened the window panes, you could see the fields and green hills outside.
If you plant a clump of bamboo and a few banana trees outside the window, it will create a completely different scene.
"Uncle Tian!" Xu Gensheng came over carrying a basket of wet mud: "Auntie's calling us for dinner!"
Tian Gui smeared the last bit of mud on the bamboo wall, then looked up and called out to the three post station craftsmen, "Master Ink Masters, it's time to wrap up and have dinner!"
The people of Xujia Village don't provide meals, but since the scholar's house is occupied by an outsider, the host is required to cook for him.
Xia's mother couldn't cook that much food, nor was it convenient for her to cook in the storeroom. Furthermore, the scholar Xia Shuyan couldn't handle such trivial matters.
Without Jiang Zhi having to make any arrangements, Tian Gui and Tao'er's mother took on the task immediately. One of them helped with the house repairs, while the other cooked with the children.
The Xia family's house is different from the rammed earth wall house; it doesn't require many people. Currently, only the Tian family, Xu Genyou, and Xu Gensheng are working.
In the drizzle, Xujia Village, which had been busy for a month, finally quieted down, while the post station outside was under construction in full swing.
Zhao, the clerk, sat in the shed where he was sheltered from the rain, listening with a dark face to the progress reports coming in from various places below.
A month has passed since the forced labor service began, but only half of the road that needed repairing has been completed.
The inn, which was planned to have twenty rooms, has had its walls built, and now they are working overtime every day to build the roof, but the facilities inside are still not finished.
"If the project isn't finished by the end of the month, you'll be spending the New Year here!"
Zhao the clerk roared, "Look at Xu Family Village, more than a dozen houses have been built, but you haven't accomplished anything!"
The foremen were berated mercilessly, but dared not utter a sound.
After Zhao, the clerk, left, one of them spat and muttered, "This little bit of porridge is thinner than rice porridge on the Ghost Festival. One bowl and you'll be peeing. What kind of work can you do with it!"
The other foremen chuckled and said, "We're lucky to have anything to eat, why are we being picky about whether it's dry or soupy?"
“Yes! Before, you could survive on moldy dry biscuits for a month, and even if you were starving, you could get up in the middle of the night and eat dried pig feed. Now, at least it’s fresh and piping hot.”
In the past, corvée labor was not provided with meals. Each person would work for half a month and then go home, and a replacement would come, or someone would pay to do the work for them.
Now that Magistrate Zhang said meals would be provided, the laborers were naturally overjoyed.
This is so much better than before. Not only do we save money on outsourcing, but we also save on food rations at home, and everyone is coming to work.
The work was heavy, the food was too watery, I got hungry quickly, and I couldn't keep working, so I just wasted time waiting to go home.
I stayed here for a month and learned that although the house repairs in Xujia Village did not include meals, the host family would still boil tea and cook a pot of sweet potatoes for the workers to eat during the work.
There was nothing if you were conscripted for corvée labor.
Especially now that it rains in winter, not only are the work areas wet, but even the shacks where people live are wet with clothes and bedding.
Cold and hungry, life was tough!
People were already lining up to eat at the workers' large kitchen.
As the cook filled each person's bowl with half water, half vegetable leaves, a few grains of rice, two lumps of egg and sweet potato porridge, and finally a dark-colored mixed grain pancake, everyone's face showed a complicated expression.
Someone was banging on a bowl and singing: "Walk into the kitchen, there's a big bowl of porridge, with waves on the sides, and people drowning in the middle."
A single breath creates a wave, a single sip creates a swell; if you don't eat, you'll be hungry, but if you do eat, you'll feel bloated.
His words drew a burst of laughter, and someone nearby chimed in: "Put in a handful of rice, scoop a bucket of water, tear your belt, and even the sparrows will poop!"
This time, even more people laughed.
Someone chimed in, "That's because you guys don't have experience scooping rice from the pot. Let me teach you: scoop it all the way to the bottom in one go, slowly lift it up from the side, and don't panic, or it'll all be soup!"
With nothing else to do, the people waiting in the back started chattering amongst themselves: "You're wrong, it depends on whether the cook is crazy or not. If they shake their hand, your sweet potato will be gone!"
"That pancake... haha, it was so hard it would make a dog's head swell up, and it was so hard you had to stretch your neck to catch it."
"That sweet potato porridge, humph, you can see your shadow in it if you put it in a bowl, but if you spill it on a stone slab, even a dog can't catch it!"
The voices grew louder and louder until Zhao the clerk roared, "If you're not going to eat, then get out! Pay up and do the work yourself, or go home and eat your white rice!"
Immediately, everyone fell silent.
They complained, but no one really wanted to leave.
Although the food here is thin, it's not like anyone will starve to death. Going home doesn't necessarily mean you'll eat better, and finishing your corvée labor will save your family money.
As time went by, the suppressed emotions began to become unstable.
In particular, when the three craftsmen who worked for the Xia family came back to sleep, they would often talk about what they had eaten that day.
The meal was still the usual sweet potato and corn porridge. Although there was no fish, meat, or oil, there were stir-fried vegetables, soft pancakes made with oak starch, and a large bowl of oak jelly. At least it filled our stomachs.
Comparing yourself to others will only make you miserable, and comparing your fate will only make you sick. The corvée labor that was originally satisfactory is nothing compared to that in Xujia Village.
The clerk Zhao was dissatisfied, the laborers were dissatisfied, and everyone from top to bottom was complaining.
The drizzle continued, barely wetting the ground, but the frequently trodden paths remained quite muddy.
The security room at the intersection, which had stopped migrant workers from trespassing several times in the past month, is now empty.
After the village repaired its houses and restored peace, Xu Changming returned home and is now busy pounding the ground every day.
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