Previously, Xu Genqing was worried that people would say he was unfilial, so he always obeyed his mother and dared not let Lianhua eat anything alone.
He's figured it out now.
My mother talks too much, and we always give in to her. We can't expect our own family to have a good life. Lotus and the children are the most important.
When Mother gets old, Lianhua and I will naturally take good care of her; it's not something we need to do right now.
Knowing that his mother was unreliable, Xu Genqing had Lianhua keep the fifty coins that Xu Genbao's family had given him, along with the money he had borrowed.
But he didn't expect that Qin would forcibly take the money to buy things.
Lianhua looked at Xu Genqing and said, "Mother has been gone for half a day and hasn't come back yet. You should go to town to pick her up; there are many people on the road!"
Xu Genqing didn't respond to this. His mother always had to suffer a bit before she realized her mistake, and if he went to pick her up, he would definitely get scolded.
He picked up a few leftover pieces of wood and walked out: "I'm going to the Tian family's house to ask Uncle Tian to make me a small stool to sit on!"
Farmers are all "carpenters with curved knives." They usually use kitchen knives and wood-chopping knives at home to make benches, wooden frames, and other things from leftover wood and tree branches.
Tian Gui is skilled with his hands. In the past, while farming, he was also responsible for renovating the house and repairing the furniture for the whole family.
When he arrived at Xujia Village and lived in a shack, they had already made a bed and benches for him. Now he is using miscellaneous tree branches to make a table frame at home.
Xu Genqing also wanted to make a few small stools.
Now every household is living a peaceful life.
After the new house is built, there are still chicken coops, pig sheds, courtyards, dirt roads, and countless other small repair and maintenance jobs to be done.
Families with several mouths to feed have even more to do, and livestock need to be fed at any time.
Those who should graze cattle should graze cattle, those who should feed pigs should feed pigs, and those who should feed rabbits and chickens should not slack off. Even in winter, they should go to the fields to pull grass, otherwise, those hungry mouths, if joined together, would be so big that they could swallow a person whole.
But being busy is what really means being energetic.
Having witnessed the desolate Xu Family Village, the squeals of pigs begging for food and the sheep droppings scattered all over the road now felt incredibly familiar.
After leaving Xia's house, Jiang Zhi went to Wang Xiaoju's house and praised her for distributing money to the villagers.
Faced with Jiang Zhi's praise, Wang Xiaoju, who was busy packing up her belongings, did not complain about being poor: "I can earn money and I don't owe anyone in the village any favors."
Good, keep up this rebellious spirit!
Jiang Zhi likes people to be assertive. Wang Xiaoju used to dare to force people to buy and sell things in town, so she's smart enough.
Liu and Tian cooked pig feed at home. They had a pig in their new house and a new pen, and two cows were kept nearby. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law kept the place very clean.
Upon seeing Jiang Zhi, Liu pulled her aside and said that Wang Xiaoju had changed. She worked diligently from morning till night and was no longer as resentful as before.
Liu was happy, and Jiang Zhi was happy too. As long as the woman in the family supports the family, the family can prosper.
Wang Xiaoju separated from the family and built her own house. She could be self-sufficient, so of course she had to be diligent.
Jiang Zhi did not go to Xu Genqing's house, thinking that Qin Shi could handle her own trivial matters.
Sitting at one house here and walking around another in the village, more than two hours passed in the blink of an eye.
But as time went on, Jiang Zhi began to feel anxious.
From Xujia Village to Lihua Town is a dozen miles or so. Given the villagers' usual stamina, which allows them to walk over mountains and valleys, it would take them at most an hour and a half to make a round trip to buy things.
Qin and Li Laoshi haven't returned yet. Could something have really happened?
Seeing that the sky was getting gloomy and it looked like it was going to rain again, Jiang Zhi couldn't sit still any longer and decided to go to the Qin family to ask.
Unexpectedly, only Lianhua was home.
Xu Genqing said he wanted his mother to suffer, but how could he really do that?
He stayed at the Tian family's house for a while with the timber and then came back. He had already gone to town to pick up his mother and should be back soon.
"That's good!"
Now that her son Xu Genqing had gone to fetch Qin Shi, Jiang Zhi was finally relieved. She went to the storeroom to pack some medicinal herbs and prepared to return to the mountain.
A few families stayed in the warehouse area a month ago because of the house renovation.
The baskets containing medicinal herbs were all piled together, and she was struggling to rummage through them when she suddenly heard someone running over calling, "Aunt Jiang, Aunt Jiang!"
When Jiang Zhi came out, she saw that it was Xu Genqing, whose trousers and shoes were covered in wet mud.
"Genqing, you're back from town? Where's your mother?"
Xu Genqing wiped the sweat from his face and said anxiously, "Aunt Jiang, I've searched all over town, but I can't find my mother or Uncle Li!"
Jiang Zhi's eyebrows shot up immediately: "Both of them are gone?"
She swallowed the rest of her sentence: Could they have eloped?
Seeing the village chief's anxiety, Xu Genqing nodded and said, "Auntie, I asked the road construction workers on the way, and they all said they didn't see any women go to town, nor did they see Uncle Li go to town!"
The migrant workers stayed on the road for a month. Li Laoshi often rode his old mule to town, and many people knew him.
Now when I ask, everyone says they haven't seen anyone!
This is strange. Neither Qin nor Li Laoshi went to town. According to Tian Xiaoquan and Shi Houzi, the two left one after the other.
Jiang Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Don't panic or make a fuss. Go and call our people out right now. We'll split up and go find them!"
"Our people" refers to the group of eight, who have become accustomed to keeping their words secret over the past year.
Jiang Zhi felt that this matter shouldn't be made into a city-wide scandal without knowing anything about it.
However, Xia Xiucai cannot go out to look for people, and Xiaoman is also working on the mountain today. The only ones who can go out to look for people are Tian Gui, Wu Yang, and Xu Genyou.
There are official roads and side roads to Lihua Town, and you'll need to find them separately on your side.
Xu Genqing was very fortunate that Aunt Jiang was in the village today. If he were there, he would definitely have gone door to door calling out to people.
Soon, the group of eight learned of Qin Shi and Li Laoshi's disappearance.
Xu Gensheng, who rushed over, looked surprised: "It's only twelve li to the town, how far could they possibly go?"
There are still people repairing the ditch on the road. Could someone have stuffed him into it?
Jiang Zhi glared at him: "Shut up, you talk too much!"
The others also came over.
Following Jiang Zhi down the mountain, Er Rui, who had been working outside with Xu Genyou, asked as soon as they met, "Mother, what happened to Uncle Li?"
Jiang Zhi said with a stern face, "He'd better have something happen to him!"
Hearing these angry words, Xu Gensheng, the argumentative guy next to him, twitched the corner of his mouth and secretly prayed for Li Laoshi: Brother Laoshi, you better fall half to your death outside, otherwise you will definitely be beaten badly. When you get beaten, I will take the stick and hit you lightly!
Li Laoshi and Qin Shi inexplicably went out and didn't come back, forcing people to go looking for them. If something really happened, that would be understandable, but if the two of them were just playing around... hehe!
Jiang Zhi had already begun instructing everyone: "Tian Gui, you take Wu Yang and Gen You along the main road, asking for directions along the way! Gen Qing, Er Rui, and Gen Sheng, come with me on the back road!"
Meanwhile, on the official road, the laborers were still clearing the last section of the project, and some of them had already finished and returned home.
Although it wasn't raining, the air was misty and damp, and the fog condensed into water droplets that dripped into the woods.
The remaining migrant workers gathered in a slightly drier spot on the edge of the cliff, lit a fire, and dried their wet shoes and clothes.
The firewood in the mountains was also damp, making it difficult to burn. Thick black smoke billowed and drifted everywhere, causing people's eyes to water and making them cough incessantly.
Author's Note: Hey! Friends outside the basin, how are you all doing?
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