Chapter 240 240

Jiang's father and mother were not at home, Jiang Xi actually felt more relaxed. This relaxation was psychological relaxation. No one could oppress her based on her status and etiquette, and they could not morally kidnap her as a matter of course.

Of course, the villagers continued to morally kidnap her, but these people could not have negative emotions towards her.

Now that cement roads have been built in the village, Jiang Xi resumed her daily long-distance running. She ran up the mountain from the brigade headquarters at the bottom along the cement main road.

When passing by the pond under the high platform, I don't know who raised a few big geese. They wandered on the main road at the end of the mountain early in the morning. When they saw her trotting over, they actually flapped their wings and chased her.

Jiang Xi, who had been in the shadow of the goose when he was young, was so frightened that he jumped faster than a rabbit and ran through this section quickly.

Fortunately, the goose stopped chasing after 70 or 80 meters and ran to the pond again, occasionally picking up some small fish and shrimp to eat.

Few people get up in the morning in winter, only a few old people get up, go to the rice field early in the morning to pull some straw back, feed them for several years, and accompany them for several years. Many buffaloes are said to be their family's livestock, and many have become the old partners of these old people.

When they were young, the buffaloes were the strong laborers in the family and they had to be taken care of carefully. Now they are used to taking care of them. The old people can go without food or sleep, but they can't let the buffaloes get cold or hungry. Although the cowshed is an old mud house, it can't leak. They have to change the dry straw for them frequently to ensure that their straw nests are dry and warm in winter.

In order to prevent the buffaloes from eating the straw in their nests when they wake up in the morning and have nothing to eat, these old people get up early in the morning, pull straw back to feed the buffaloes, lead them to drink water, and then send them back to the nest.

Some old people who have a good relationship with the old cows at home also take out a large bristle brush and brush the cows, talking to the old cows while brushing.

The village in the winter morning is as quiet as an ink painting.

She ran up the mountain along the cement road. The mountains were thick with mist. The distant mountains and nearby scenery seemed to be shrouded in winter mist. From time to time, she could hear the chirping of birds and the gurgling of streams. She breathed in and out of her nose with the clear and cool breath of the mountains and forests.

She ran to the end of the cement road.

I thought there would be no one in the mountain at this time, but my uncle and his wife had already woken up. They lit a fire in front of the small house on the mountain, and the smoke was curling. I saw someone going up the mountain from a distance. My uncle and his wife didn't know it was Jiang Gui, so she shouted, "Who is that? What are you doing up the mountain?"

There are always people who go up the mountain to steal trees to make beams for the house. My uncle and his wife are very alert. When they see someone going up the mountain, they will pay attention to whether they have a hatchet or an axe.

If someone wants to cut grass, it's okay to bring a sickle for cutting grass, but it's a problem to bring a hatchet, because if you don't need to cut trees, you don't need a hatchet, and a sickle is enough.

The sickle blade is thin and light, so it is OK to use it to cut thin branches and dead grass, but it is easy to cut a tree as thick as a wrist. Generally speaking, no one is willing to use a sickle to cut a tree.

Jiang Xi raised his voice and shouted: "My uncle's grandmother, it's me! Xiaoxiao!"

My uncle's grandmother cried a lot during the years when she was an educated youth. Her eyes are not very good because of crying. She can see people up close, but she can't see people's faces clearly from a distance. When she heard Jiang Xi's voice, she immediately laughed and came down to greet him: "Is it Xiaoxiao who is back? Didn't you have breakfast? Come up quickly, I'll make you an egg pancake!"

The egg and chive pancakes made by my uncle's grandmother were also excellent. Jiang Xi had only eaten them once when he was very young.

She didn't quite remember why the two families didn't interact much. In her memory, it seemed that she had never been to her uncle's house as a guest. It was her uncle Jiang Guoliang who came to her house most of the time.

She was also a person who didn't want to bother others, so she made a trumpet shape with her hands and put them in front of her mouth and shouted to Uncle Jiang's grandmother: "Uncle's grandmother, no need! I went down after running. I haven't been up the mountain for a long time, so I came up to take a look!"

The mountain is still the same mountain, the stream is still the gurgling stream, and the grass and trees on the mountain seem to have not changed, but they have changed a lot.

The hilltop near my home used to be full of wild chestnut trees, but now they are all planted with tea trees. On the contrary, at the foot of the mountain, in order to respond to the current slogan of returning farmland to forest, many pine and fir seedlings less than thigh-high were planted in the areas on both sides of the cement road that were originally vegetable fields at the foot of the mountain. It is conceivable that in three to five years, a pine and fir forest will rise here again.

The reason for choosing the vegetable fields at the foot of the mountain is that the location of the pine and fir forests should be slightly farther away from the hills, so that the shadows of the trees will not block the sunlight for the tea leaves.

She looked at the tea trees on the whole mountain, which were arranged in clusters and neatly. Not far away, there was a wooden sign stuck in the soil, with words such as "Wugong Tea No. 3" and "No Picking" written on it.

Seeing that she refused to come up, Xiaoshu's grandmother turned around and went to the hut, picked up two rabbits, walked down the mountain quickly, and stuffed them into Jiang's hands.

She originally wanted to wait for the New Year, when her two sons and daughters-in-law brought their grandchildren back, and she would leave these two rabbits for her children and grandchildren to eat.

Uncle Jiang didn't know how to use a □□, but he knew how to make traps for catching rabbits with fine wire. They grew up in the mountains and could easily find the rabbits' usual path. They followed the rabbits' footprints and set a few traps on their way, catching them one by one.

Uncle Jiang's salary has now risen to three hundred yuan a month, which is almost as much as the teachers in their Linhe Primary School. In addition, this year they were allocated four acres of tea land. Although their family was unlucky and the land they were allocated was all in the shade of the valley, the quality of the tea was not high and the price was not as high as the tea from people living in the sunny direction. But because of this, Jiang Guotai did not take away the Mingqian tea from her family's tea land, but let them make a fortune. This year, the income from tea alone is nearly ten thousand yuan.

They will not quit their patrolling job, but they plan to use the 10,000 yuan to build a new house for their family, so that their daughters-in-law will not come back every year because they always complain that their country is dirty and messy, and the house is dilapidated, and their grandchildren don't like living there, so they come back less and less.

They always think that their children and grandchildren are unwilling to go home because of them, because they are useless and have not provided them with a good environment. They think that as long as they build a better house at home, their children and grandchildren will be willing to come back.

They don't ask for much, just to make their home warm and lively when others are having a reunion dinner during the New Year.

So Uncle Jiang’s grandmother was especially grateful to Jiang Xiao. If it hadn’t been for Jiang Xiao’s suggestion to clean up the mountain land, plant tea leaves, and bring CCTV people down to shoot TV series promotion, they wouldn’t have their current tea mountains and tea fields, and this year’s income of nearly 10,000 yuan from selling tea.

The tea fields would be divided again at the end of the year, and she thought that when her eldest son and his family came back, the three of them would at least have three acres of tea fields, and her son would be able to stand up straighter at his daughter-in-law’s house.

In Uncle Jiang’s grandmother’s view, her son didn’t come back for the New Year because he couldn’t hold his head up in front of his in-laws and daughter-in-law, so he listened to his father-in-law and daughter-in-law and didn’t come back for the New Year. In short,

her son had no choice.

Jiang Xiao ran home again, carrying two rabbits.

Grandpa Jiang was old and felt young, so he got up early in the morning. Jiang Bai was also used to getting up early. When Jiang Xi came back, he saw Jiang Bai bending over and chopping withered wild wormwood in the yard.

Jiang Xi, holding two rabbits, stood in the corridor and asked Jiang Bai: "Second brother, what are you doing so early in the morning?"

"There is no firewood at home, so I cut some dry wild wormwood as firewood for breakfast!" Jiang Bai cut grass very seriously and diligently.

In fact, there is dew in the morning in winter. Even if these dry wild wormwoods are cut now, they cannot be used as firewood immediately. They must be exposed to the sun for at least a day before they can be burned.

Jiang Bai naturally knew this, but there was no firewood at home, so he had no choice. He couldn't go to the mountain to chop firewood without eating breakfast.

The last thing Jiang Bai wanted to experience in his life was hunger, so filling his stomach was his first need at any time.

Jiang Bai was chopping wood vigorously, and Jiang Xi finished brushing his teeth and washing his face, and called Jiang Bai: "Second brother, stop chopping, let's go to Auntie's house for a meal!"

Compared to Jiang Xi, who was used to being fed by Auntie Jiang since he was a child, Jiang Bai was actually more afraid of bothering others than Jiang Xi. He always habitually solved everything by himself, and he didn't dare and was not used to bothering others.

He was used to putting himself in the position of taking care of others, to take care of the people around him.

For example, he would rather go to the weedy yard to chop some withered wormwood to make breakfast, and he was too embarrassed to go to Uncle Jiang's mother's house.

Jiang Xi was used to eating at his aunt's house, so he took Jiang Bai, who was a little awkward and wanted to make his own breakfast, and went to his aunt's house with the cheerful Grandpa Jiang. As expected, Aunt

Jiang had already prepared a big pot of chicken soup noodles with big bones and native chickens. When she saw them coming, she couldn't stop smiling.

Second cousin's wife also smiled and said to Jiang Xi in a dialect different from the local dialect: "Mom started to make big bone chicken soup last night. I can be said to have benefited from you. The chicken soup noodles made by mom are so delicious. You guys should go and eat it!"

Second cousin's wife's personality is somewhat similar to that of the aunt. She is a little slow. After eating a big bowl of noodles, she was full, but it was so delicious that she couldn't help but get another bowl. Second cousin Jiang Hongbing was watching her and laughing happily.

Jiang Xi was not polite and hurried to get the noodles, but Jiang Bai was embarrassed.

Aunt Jiang didn't want Jiang Xi to do anything, so she asked Jiang Xi to sit in the fire bucket and not move. She used a large bowl for soup and brought a bowl full of pork bones and a chicken leg, as well as a lot of noodles to the table and fed Jiang Xi.

After serving Jiang Xi, it was Grandpa Jiang's turn. As for Jiang Bai, he was a big guy, so he naturally went to the kitchen to get the noodles himself. Could he ask her to help him get the rice? Jiang Bai

was embarrassed to ask Aunt Jiang to get the noodles, so he went to the kitchen to get the noodles and ate them.

Aunt Jiang gave Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai a lot of food yesterday, and forgot about firewood. When Jiang Hongbing went to build a house, she also took a load of firewood to the Jiang family.

But this load of firewood was far from enough for the Jiang family to burn at the end of the year. In the afternoon, Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai went to the mountain to chop firewood. As soon as they walked up the mountain and had not started chopping, they were discovered by Uncle Jiang, who pulled Jiang Bai and carried a load of firewood down the mountain.

Under the guidance of Uncle Jiang, Jiang Bai found two dead trees. He dragged one in his hand and Jiang Liu dragged another. The two dragged them back to the yard with great effort. The whole afternoon, Jiang Bai, the big star in the eyes of others, was in the yard, chopping wood diligently.

Jiang Liu sat on the corridor of the waterproof layer on the second floor, basking in the sun while watching her second brother chopping wood attentively.

What Jiang Bai didn't know was that many people around him were standing on their own roofs, smiling and watching Jiang Bai chopping wood in the yard.

He became the scenery in the eyes of others, but he didn't know it at all.

Jiang Liu felt that her second brother was sometimes particularly virtuous.

On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar year, Jiang Guoliang and his wife came back, but Jiang Guoan, who was "forced" in the eyes of Uncle Jiang and Grandma Jiang, did not come back again this year.

Jiang Guoan's wife thought that since they all went back to Jiangjia Village for the New Year last year, she had to stay in Wucheng to accompany her parents for the New Year this year, right? She

had not been back to Jiangjia Village for a year, but seeing that Wucheng was developing better and better this year, becoming more and more beautiful and prosperous, Jiang Guoan felt that it was comfortable to stay in the city. She would definitely not go back to Jiangjia Village in the future, but would live in the city. In addition, his father-in-law was about to retire. His father-in-law wanted to retire, which pushed Jiang Guoan to take a step forward, so he was more willing to stay at his father-in-law's house for the New Year.

Anyway, he did not go back in previous years, and he went back for the New Year last year, so what else did he want? So he stayed in the city with peace of mind.

Uncle Jiang and his grandmother waited anxiously until the early morning of the twenty-eighth day of the lunar year, when Town Chief Jiang returned with his family on Jiang Guotai's motorboat.

Jiang Guoan had not returned yet.

On the eve of the lunar year, the whole village would hold a collective ancestor worship ceremony, so this year the land distribution would be carried out on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar year.

On the night of the twenty-eighth day of the lunar year, the village cadres, Jiang Guotai who had returned to the village, and Town Chief Jiang who had returned to celebrate the New Year, held a meeting together.

Two promising young men, Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai, were also there.

The meeting mainly discussed two things, of which the most important one was the distribution of tea land at the end of the year as agreed before.

I won't talk about those in the second and third houses who had already received tea land. This time, the land distribution was mainly for those families in the second and third houses who did not plant tea trees last year, and for those in the first and fourth houses.

The tea fields on the hill on the right were mostly owned by the first and fourth families. They had sorted them out together this year, and they had also paid money and worked hard to plant the tea trees. It was no problem to give them land.

As long as the young people came back on New Year's Eve, they could get a share of the tea fields. As for those who didn't come back, they could only wait until next time.

The second thing was Jiang Wu's proposal to give homesteads to the girls in his hometown.

As soon as Jiang Wu said this, it immediately caused a commotion in the village committee.

Because since ancient times, there has been no tradition of giving homesteads to girls. Girls have to get married! Besides, there is only so much land in the village. Even though there is still some to be distributed now, the children in the village keep being born. In another ten years, not to mention girls, even boys may not be able to get any housing land. With such limited resources, the tea land was originally distributed to girls because Jiang Gui is also a girl. Now that the housing land has to be distributed, they are a little reluctant.

"No, that won't work. If we divide the land for the girls, what will happen when they get married?"

A man from the second room said, "Why not? There are married girls and adopted girls. They are all from our village. The adopted girls stay in the village. Why can't they have homesteads?"

The man who spoke was the father who was mentioned last year as the one with the best hope of having another female college student in the village since Jiang Xi's generation. His daughter is actually only one year younger than Jiang Xi, but she is three years younger than Jiang Xi and will take the college entrance examination next year.

His family is the most famous family in the village for the importance they place on girls, apart from Jiang's father and Jiang Gangqin's mother.

His family is famous not because his daughter has good grades and is about to have another female college student in the village, but because his family values ​​his sister.

Because his parents dote on his sister, he and his brothers' children have called his sister uncle instead of aunt since they were young.

When Jiang was young, he was always very curious about why Jiang Weiwei's aunt was called uncle.

With today's thinking, it is natural to think that it is strange for a girl to be called "uncle" by men, but in the eyes of his parents, his brothers and sisters, and the villagers, this is how much they value his sister, because in his parents' eyes, there is no difference between their daughter and son. They raise his sister just like their brothers, and even love her more.

Of course, his parents know that their daughter should be called aunt, but they insist that their grandchildren call her uncle to show their importance to their daughter.

His parents did not want their daughter to get married and wanted her to stay in the village, but in the living environment at that time, it seemed that there was no better way out for girls to grow up except to get married.

His sister has been divorced for two or three years and is already in her early thirties. His parents are also old, and the only thing they worry about is their divorced daughter who has nowhere to go. They are worried about the fact that their daughter, whom they have cherished since she was a child, has nowhere to go.

Now the village is giving tea land to girls, and he wants to fight for his sister. If his sister can also have a homestead in the village, she can return to the village to live, and with the brothers taking care of her, and her nephews and nieces, her life will not be bad.

Jiang Shujun, who works at the town tax bureau, said, "If the girl can get a homestead, can my daughter also get a homestead? I don't ask for a big place, just a house for her. You know how much my aunt loves her. She was nearly 50 years old when she got her precious daughter. She is a college student. Isn't it better for her to stay in the village than to marry and become someone else's?"

He glanced at Jiang Xi and said, "I always heard people say that girls study for other people's families. If the village can give homesteads to girls who don't marry out, then the books won't be for other people's families, right?"

Everyone's eyes fell on Jiang Xi again, and their eyes lit up at the same time.

Yes!

If the girls can also get homesteads, then the golden phoenixes that flew out of their village can continue to stay in their village, instead of flying to other people's homes and benefiting other people!

But everyone is worried again.

It is easy to distribute tea land to girls. There are many hills. Such a large area of ​​mountains cannot be divided up. It's just a difference between good and bad. But there is only so much land in the village. If the girls don't want to get married, they will all be bribed. Where will the homesteads be distributed?

Jiang Xin and Jiang Miao sat at the outermost of the crowd, listening to the people in the village committee discussing the distribution of homesteads to the girls in the village. They felt like they had walked into the wrong village.

Last year, they were still discussing the distribution of tea land to girls, and this year it was the turn of homesteads?

Although he was born in the countryside, he grew up in the city. He thought he was very open-minded. He spent four years in the provincial capital at university, and his horizons and thoughts became more open. Naturally, he didn't think there was anything wrong with allocating housing land to girls. What

surprised him was, when did the villagers become so open-minded?

The person who brought all these changes was Jiang Wu, who was sitting at the main table with Jiang Guotai and Mayor Jiang. He seemed to notice his gaze, and saw that Jiang Wu's eyes were also looking straight at him, and she smiled at him. Jiang Wu

nodded at him, then turned her eyes away, and continued to be a mascot that was fought over by others, fighting for the rights and interests of the girls in the village.

Seeing that their discussion was fruitless, Jiang Guotai knocked on the table impatiently and said, "Why bother? Isn't there a barren mountain next to Hongbing's house? If you want to stay in the village and marry unmarried girls, you can get the housing land there!"

Everyone thought it was a good idea.

Less than 200 meters away from Jiang Hongbing's house was a barren mountain, located in the middle of Jiangjia Village and Xujia Village, dividing Jiangjia Village and Xujia Village into two.

This barren mountain is more than two meters higher than the surrounding fields. It is a flat land extending from the mountain. Because there are many lush trees planted here, in those bad years, this was where the educated youth were located. After all the educated youth returned to the city, this place became completely deserted. Also, because in the bad years, many corpses were buried here, and there were wastelands everywhere, which led to the gloomy atmosphere here all year round, and few people dared to set foot here.

Last year's severe flood drowned most of the trees on the barren mountain. Since this year, although many trees on the barren mountain are still standing, no green leaves have grown, which makes this place even more cold and desolate.

In the past, the brigade headquarters and the elderly activity center were built here. At that time, the nearby villages would run here for any event, so no one thought this place was gloomy.

Therefore, the barren mountain was a piece of land that no one in the village wanted.

When everyone heard that the homesteads for the girls in the village were allocated here, and it would not infringe on the interests of the boys in the village, naturally no one objected, but they all agreed very much. So the homesteads for the girls in the village who did not want to marry out were allocated in this way.

Since the homesteads for the girls were allocated, the families with daughters who did not want to marry out started to fight for the homesteads for the girls.

Because the wasteland was also divided into good land and bad land.

The best plot of land is naturally the former Youth League Point, the later brigade headquarters and the elderly activity center, which is the outermost part of the barren mountain, facing the sun, with high terrain. It only needs to build a small waterproof layer to prevent floods. It is also side by side with Jiang Hongbing's current house. Although it is in the barren mountain, the location is actually better than Jiang Hongbing's house! It's

just that no one thought of the barren mountain in the past. Now think about it, if the barren mountain is really developed, the outermost position is really a good location!

As for the location further inside, because it comes all the way down from the mountain, the closer it is to the inside, the higher the terrain, the lower the waterproof layer to be built, and the lower the cost of building a house. In fact, it is more suitable for girls who don't have much money to build a house.

The second best location is the one facing the edge of Jiangjia Village, because it is far away from Jiangjia Village. If there is something, just shout towards the village. Because the distance is not far, the third and second rooms living at the outermost part of the village can actually hear the shouting, and relatively speaking, it will be much safer. The

worst location is, first, the end close to Jiangjia Village, and second, the more you go in, the more wasteland graves there are, and the closer you go to the mountain.

Because there are wolves.

Jiang Guotai decided on the spot to give the outermost acre of land close to Jiangjia Village to Jiang Liu as a residential site, and he also allocated a residential site next to Jiang Liu for his daughter Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao will most likely not live in the village in the future, but the village is obviously developing better and better now. Jiang Guotai would be stupid not to fight for welfare for his daughter. He is not really doing charity.

Mayor Jiang said with a smile: "Then my Yanyan's homestead should be next to Miaomiao. The three of them have good fun. In the future, if we build houses together, we can take care of each other."

This is pure nonsense. Jiang Xi, Jiang Miao, and Jiang Yanyan have been separated since childhood and have never played together.

Jiang Shujun also immediately said: "My daughter Gangqin and Xiaoxiao have been classmates since childhood. Xiaoxiao is her best friend in the village. So we should live next to Xiaoxiao, on the side of Jiangjia Village facing our Jiangjia Village!"

It happened that Jiang Gangqin's home was just at the front of the third room. If Jiang Gangqin's homestead was here, it would be right across from Jiang Gangqin's home. If she had any problems, she could just shout or call out, and her brother would be able to hear her. Her eldest sister married in Xujia Village, and she would be right in the middle of Xujia Village and Jiangjia Village, so she would be able to be taken care of if anything happened in the future.

Seeing that these people were quick to act and quickly reserved the best locations, Jiang Guoqi from the second house quickly fought for his sister and daughter, saying: "The land next to Yanyan and towards Xujia Village, give it to our Weiwei. I know my sister is a married woman, and I won't compete with the girls in the village for such a good land. I'll just give her the land next to our Weiwei and towards Xujia Village. Is that ok?"

The people in Xujia Village were wild, and his sister was raised like a boy since she was a child, so her temper was not much better. But she was not afraid of people from Xujia Village causing trouble. Besides, there were four brothers in their generation, and there were many sons in his generation. Although they were still young, they were no pushovers.

The people present were all either village officials or heads of influential families.

The four houses were all invisible. They just followed whatever the first, second and third houses said. There was no one here. The first house only had Jiang Shujun, a village official and an electrician. The daughter of the village official had been married off. The electrician had two sons but no daughter. It seemed that they had nothing to do with it. They just watched the second and third houses snatching the barren mountain that no one cared about in the past.

Although Jiang Xi said she would not come back to live, she did not object when Jiang Guotai snatched the best piece of land on the wasteland for her as her homestead.

Because she knew that only she, Jiang Yanyan, Jiang Miao, the daughters of Jiang Town Chief, the most prestigious in the eyes of the girls in the village, the daughters of Jiang Guotai, the most promising, including her, a college student, were willing to build houses here and might live here in the future. Only then did they dare to ask for the homestead here and really develop this barren mountain into a place where girls can choose to be independent and have a place to stay in the village if they don’t want to get married or leave home.

Instead of just getting married and drifting away.