Chapter 24 Chapter 24 The house is leaking!
When we were half a mile away from Benguli, the sky turned cloudy.
“It’s raining!”
Ji Feng's face became wet and he started to scream.
Ji Xu and the others hurriedly ran, but even so, they were still soaked. How could one outrun the rain? The linen clothes clung to their bodies, making them feel cold.
"Hurry up and change your clothes, or you'll catch a cold."
Ji Xu went into the room, put down his things, and then went to get them the clean clothes hanging on the bed frame.
"What should I do, sister?" Ji Zhu became worried.
They had two sets of old clothes to change into, but Ji Xu only had one.
"Sister, take off your clothes too and wait for me in the house. I'll go to the kitchen to light a fire and help you dry your clothes."
Ji Feng said that after she had changed her end, she had to help Ji Xu, fearing that she would catch a cold if she wore it for too long.
Ji Xu thought that this was the only way for the time being, so he took off his jacket and pants, leaving only his belly button, closed the door, and waited in the room.
Since the dirt road outside could be seen through the window of the urn, she could only stand at an angle close to the door.
I thought that next time I go to the market, I would buy a few feet of cloth to make clothes.
Fortunately, the linen was thin and light and dried in a short while. Ji Feng held it in her arms, ran over from under the eaves, and handed it to her through the crack in the door.
Ji Xu put on his clothes before opening the door.
The rain outside is getting heavier, and even the autumn air is chilly. No wonder they say that every autumn rain brings a chill.
The rain didn't stop until noon. Their thatched cottage was a woodshed before they separated. It had been in disrepair for a long time and could not withstand such a heavy rain. Some corners had already started to leak.
In the southeast corner of the inner room, Ji Xu took a clay basin and ran to receive it.
Upon closer inspection, I saw that an egg-sized hole had been washed out in the thatch of the roof. Water kept dripping down and soon filled the basin.
Ji Xu hurriedly poured it out, and Ji Feng took an empty can next to him. It was bought in the market just now. The duck eggs inside were picked out and temporarily placed on the stove.
"Sister, this is bad! It's leaking here too!"
Jizhu noticed that water was dripping in the southwest corner of the kitchen, soaking the ground, and called out quickly.
So, a pottery tripod was made available here to receive it.
Soon, there were two more leaks. The unused buckets in the house and even the clay pots used for cooking were used to collect water, and the full water kept pouring out of the house.
Now that the family doesn’t farm the fields, they don’t have straw to repair the roof, and there is no ladder at home.
Ji Xu only hoped that the house could survive the rain. Tomorrow she would go to the city to find a bricklayer to repair it. Now she still had 110 coins at home, which she thought was enough.
As for the future, I still have to save money to build a tiled house, which is sturdier after all.
"The chirping of dragonflies makes clothes cold, the rain leaks from the roof, and the lazy girl is startled... She deserves it!"
Seeing this through the crack of the window next door, Jin happily took a handful of dried naan fruits to chew.
My own tile-roofed house is spacious and can shelter me from wind and rain. Then I look at the three girls next door, who are very busy.
This basin is full, that jar is full, pour this and pour that.
"Look at this girl, she's sweating all over."
Jin was so sad that she dragged her eldest daughter Ji Yuan to see her, and didn't even bother to prepare dinner.
Seeing this, Ji Yuan's eyes became more arrogant. "Look at how proud she is! She doesn't even have a tiled house."
Here, Cui Si, wearing a straw hat and a straw raincoat, came to Feng's house to play with Feng Fuzhen, who was of the same age as him. When he told her about it, he saw her passing by the second branch of Ji's family, as if telling a joke.
"...You didn't see them like that! The house was leaking, they were almost soaked to the skin."
Feng Fuzhen took out a wooden boqen and used it to play with Cui Si, trying to see how big or small the numbers were.
Hearing this, I felt inexplicably happy.
"Fuzhen, the silk flower on your head is so beautiful." Cui Si had never worn such a silk flower before.
Although her family had no worries about food and clothing, her mother, Liao, was stingy and only spent the family's money on the most important things. The clothes she wore were all made of linen woven by her family.
Feng Fuzhen thought about how the silk flower had not attracted the attention of the girls in Shengchangli, so she took it off.
"It's for you."
Cui Si happily accepted it and praised Feng Fuzhen. She turned the silk flowers in her hands and talked about her uneasiness:
"I'm just telling you quietly. My mother wants to marry Xu Nu to my eldest brother. Tell me, if she were to marry into our family, would she be good to me and my younger brother? Wouldn't that mean I'd have two more sisters?"
Feng Fuzhen was surprised and said, "Your mother actually likes that kind of cook? Look at her family, they're so poor, they even live in a thatched cottage."
Cui Si was embarrassed and stammered, "She's my mother, I just look down on her anyway."
The rain outside still continues.
Chen family,
Zhuang came out from the west room weaving and looked at the rain under the eaves.
"Luckily, Grandpa had the roof cleaned last month, otherwise the rain would have leaked into our house."
Because of the rain, Aunt Lu moved the reed mat into the main room, sat on it, and wove linen. She was relieved to hear her daughter-in-law's words.
Then I heard Zhuang mutter to herself, "Is there a leak in Ms. Xu's house?"
The Chen family lived at the head of the field. Across acres of fields, they could see the thatched house on the ridge from afar. It seemed as if someone was pouring water out, over and over again.
Upon hearing this, Lu Ai put down the bamboo winnowing machine on her legs, stood up and went out of the house to look. Her eyes were a little blurry when she looked at things nearby, but clear when she looked at things far away.
Just as Ji Xu picked up half a basin of water and was about to pour it out, she saw a man holding a large bundle of grass coming to the eaves of her house. After putting down the grass, his old face was revealed, and the straw raincoat made of bamboo shoots and palm bark on his body was still dripping with water.
"Mother Lu?"
The person who came was indeed Lu Ai.
"I saw you splashing water from a distance. This thatched house needs to be maintained regularly, otherwise it will leak when it rains.
Your house hasn't been repaired in over six months, so it probably can't withstand such a heavy rain. I'm going to use some straw to fix your roof."
After the autumn harvest, every household had stored straw. Ji Xu's family had no arable land, so they had no straw. They usually sold steamed cakes to fill their baskets. It was a small bundle left over from the early years, and there were only a few straws left.
The rice stalks and straw are very useful. They can be used to cover the roof, ferment fertilizer, burn firewood, and weave straw sandals. Ji Xu's house is leaking now, and his family is in need of these.
"I'll pay for this grass from you." She went into the house to get the money.
Mother Lu held her back and said, "Why would you pay for a little straw? We're from the same hometown. Isn't this embarrassing for an old woman?"
Not only that, Lu Ai even thought about the fact that she didn't have a wooden ladder at home, so old man Chen brought the ladder from his home.
"Wait a minute, your father Chen will put on his straw raincoat and go up to the roof to help you repair it.
This house is leaking like this, how can anyone live there..."
As he spoke, Old Man Chen had already set up the ladder and was pulling the straw up to the roof. He was an expert at this, as he had built his own thatched house. It didn't take him long to fill the leaks one by one.
Seeing that the dripping of water in the earthenware jar finally stopped, Ji Xu felt warm in her heart. She would have to pay someone to repair it, so she had to wait until tomorrow.
Thinking that the Chen family was not well off, he wanted to stuff some copper coins into Lu Ai's hand.
Mrs. Lu frowned and said, "My dog Sui'er ate a lot of your steamed buns. I just gave you some worthless straw. I don't want your money. Put it away quickly and leave it for Xiaozhu and the others to buy food."
"How can it be the same? You took the trouble to deliver the grass in the rain, and it was Uncle Chen who helped to pick the best ones.
Sharing the steamed buns is because the children get along well with each other. Besides, your dog Sui'er also helped me collect firewood."
"Stop talking about collecting firewood. How much firewood can two six-year-olds collect? Take the money back now. If you keep doing this, I'll be angry."
Lu Ai was also stubborn and refused to accept the money.
Ji Xu had no choice but to give up, and kept this kindness in mind and expressed his gratitude sincerely.
When leaving, Lu Ai didn't even want her to see her off, and urged her to go into the house quickly.
"You're not wearing a raincoat. It would be terrible if you caught a cold from the rain. Come inside quickly."
He went home with Old Man Chen who was carrying the ladder, and his figure gradually disappeared in the rain.
"Finally it's no longer leaking. Uncle Chen's craftsmanship is truly excellent."
Ji Feng finally felt relieved after she tidied up the pots and pans. She was worried that the bed would get wet.
Although the roof can shelter from the rain at the moment, this unexpected autumn rain, with its slight chill, reminds Ji Xu: Build a house as soon as possible, a tiled house.
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