Chapter 36: Build a Real Wall
Ye Yanping suppressed the bitterness in his eyes and said, "If you really know you are wrong, you should ask your parents for forgiveness."
"I'm just scared, aren't I? Ah Ping, next time Mom scolds me, can you please say something nice for me..."
"Mom didn't scold you. Mom hasn't mentioned you for a long, long time."
"Yan Ping, there are no bricks left!" someone shouted from the other side of the wall.
Ye Yanping left pulling a cart of mud bricks.
Ye Yanlan stood there in a daze, unable to come back to her senses for a long time.
The sun is too strong at noon and it is easy to get heatstroke under the high temperature. The village head asked everyone to rest for an hour before coming back.
After returning home, the Ye family changed into clean clothes. Although they wanted to take a cold shower, they were reluctant to use water.
Although there is enough water nowadays, it cannot withstand excessive waste. Everyone has been afraid of water shortages in recent years, and the awareness of water conservation has been ingrained in their bones.
Yunniang brought a large bowl of mung bean soup from the kitchen.
Ye Yanping asked in surprise: "Where did the mung beans come from?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Qiuyue and Yunniang glared at him.
There were a lot of extra fish in the kitchen bucket before. Yunniang and Luo Qiuyue were frightened, fearing that it would have a bad influence on Xiaojiu, so they kept them and dared not eat them.
Later, the whole village was picking eggs and catching fish, and Xiaojiu was still lively and jumping around, so they were completely relieved.
There are a lot of mung beans today. Yunniang originally wanted to add mung beans to brown rice to cook bean rice, but then she found rock sugar, so she thought of making mung bean soup to cool down.
After the mung bean soup is cooked, it is poured into a basin and put into a bucket of water to cool down. When it is taken out, it is ice-cold and refreshing. The Ye family members get a bowl in hand and can't stop drinking.
…
Heihe Village Ancestral Hall.
The white-haired village head knelt in front of the tablets of all the former village heads and repented.
There is water in Heihe Village, but he chose to protect himself. No one can understand how conflicted and tormented he is.
"...For the sake of Heihe Village, I can only choose to remain indifferent... If there is any guilt, let God punish me alone..."
The village head burst into tears.
After rejecting Jinguicun last night, his wife sighed all night. Although she didn't say anything, he understood.
After finally falling asleep, he had nightmares all night long. In the dream, those people with chapped lips pulled at his trouser legs, crying and begging him to give them a drink of water. He refused, and those people cursed him for being heartless and not helping others. Then they died in front of him one after another...
When he woke up, he cried.
He felt that after his death he would go to the eighteen levels of hell, where he would be burned by fire and fried in oil.
But he had no other choice.
He was going to continue being cruel. Not only could he not provide water, he also had to build a wall to keep those people out. If they dared to rob, he would beat them until they dared not to rob...
He is not a cruel and violent person, but the responsibility on his shoulders forces him to do so.
"If it were you, what would you do? I really don't have a way to have the best of both worlds..."
The village head was crying and muttering.
There was a dull thud, and the village head was startled.
"who?!"
No one answered.
Looking at the tablet standing quietly on the altar, the village head felt creepy and stood up and walked out.
As a result, after taking a few steps, he almost tripped. When he looked down, he saw a bulging big sack.
It’s strange, there was nothing when I just came in!
The village head looked outside the house hurriedly, but it was quiet and there was no one in sight.
I opened the bag out of curiosity, wow!
A sack full of mung beans.
There is also a small bag of rock sugar.
The village head was stunned. He quickly locked the door of the ancestral hall and rushed to the Ye family. He wanted to confirm it.
As he entered the yard, Xiaojiu saw him and ran over with a small bowl in his hand. His black and bright eyes were pure without any impurities. He raised his little hand and held the bowl in front of him, "Seven!"
The headman looked at the mung bean soup in the bowl and couldn't help but burst into tears. His shaking goatee looked a little funny.
He understood!
His choice was not wrong!
"Xiaojiu!" The village head squatted down, like a wronged child who had found comfort in the presence of a god. "Thank you!"
After saying that, he turned and walked away.
Ye Family: ???
"Hey, village head, come inside and rest for a while before leaving!" Luo Qiuyue stood on tiptoe and looked at the hurried figure outside the fence.
"No, I'm busy!"
After resting for an hour, the villagers returned to the village entrance to work.
They found a large pot set up under the shade of a tree, filled with steaming mung bean soup.
The village head had a towel around his neck and was adding rock sugar to the soup.
"It's freshly cooked, still hot. Let it cool down for half an hour before you can drink it!"
Everyone gathered around the big pot, and the fragrant mung bean soup made them swallow their saliva.
"Village head, is this for everyone to drink?"
"Where did you get the mung beans and rock sugar?"
There are some undivided lands in Heihe Village, which were previously used to grow crops. After the harvest, the land was placed in the ancestral hall as the common property of the whole village.
After several years of severe drought, the stored food had long been eaten up.
Moreover, they didn't remember growing mung beans, let alone this precious rock sugar. Children could be happy all day just by licking it.
"Why are you talking so much! Get back to work! I'll call you when you're ready to drink!"
The village chief glared at them, and everyone walked away laughing and started working under the scorching sun.
Having sweet mung bean soup in the afternoon, the work seemed less tiring.
Before dusk, the city wall had been built to half a person's height, and the village head asked everyone to rest.
The men, shirtless, crowded under the shade of the trees, drinking mung bean soup in big gulps, while the women sat under the trees, drinking it in small sips with great care, and not forgetting to give a few sips to the children around them.
"Father Yanping, why do you want them to stop?" The village head was very puzzled.
Ye Buwei said that if the city wall wanted to withstand the attack, it would be far from enough to rely solely on this mud brick wall.
Next, we need to accumulate soil on the inside and outside of the wall and tamp it diagonally. After the soil is tamped to the current height, we will build the second layer on top.
"Dad Yanping, how come you know so much?"
The village head was stunned.
Also, Heihe Village isn't a city after all, so building a wall isn't enough? Who actually built a city wall?
Isn’t this specification too high?
“No one knows when the drought will end.”
Ye Buwei's eyes were unfocused, but his words sent shockwaves through the village head. "Dayu Dynasty is unstable. If one day the world falls into chaos and starvation spreads everywhere, Heihe Village, as the only paradise, will face more than just the villagers as enemies."
The only paradise...
The only paradise...
These words kept repeating in the headman's mind, and he felt drowsy as if he were drunk.
The amount of information was too much for him to digest in a short time.
Will Heihe Village become the only paradise?
Will we face even more powerful enemies?
Is it because he doesn't have a big enough vision?
Why did he feel that what Ye Buwei said was a fantasy?
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