Two oil lamps lit up the entire basement at a glance. The front half of the floor was lined with four rows of shelves, each with a roof, and enough space for one person to fit between them. If something needed to be dried in the shade, a bamboo pole could be placed across the middle.
On the left side of the remaining open space, there are two large urns for grain and three large wooden boxes; on the right side, there are two large rectangular water tanks against the wall.
Zhou Jiao originally planned to put ice cubes in the room to lower the temperature, but then she realized that it was winter here for almost half the year and didn't need to. She just left it for her mother-in-law to play with.
Zhang's father couldn't let it go. He touched the shelf and the four walls, and found that they were still made of cement. The corners of his mouth twitched. This couple of prodigal sons really are willing to spend money!
"Dad, how's it going?"
"It's just missing gold bricks, how could it be bad?"
Zhang Guoqing smiled and said, "As long as you like it. This cement didn't come from my godfather. I exchanged it with someone in the provincial capital. It didn't cost much."
Father Zhang smiled and shook his head. This brat had a great advantage with his hunting skills. But he was wrong. What kind of material is cement these days?
Who would dare take such a risk in the wild?! These were stolen by the young couple from a neighboring province. What a waste of money to barter.
"Dad, we had to move all these big vats and stuff in here before, but now we can't do anything about it. Do you want me to get you some sacks and bags?"
Father Zhang shook his head. "There are enough shelves for storage. How many can your mother and I use? Don't buy things on the black market anymore. It's expensive and unsafe. The things you prepared before the New Year are still there. We can't use all the extras. We need to pack up some things while you're at home and move them here."
"Okay, I'll listen to you."
Father Zhang knew that his son didn't understand what he meant, so he thought about it and said nothing more. He just asked his wife to pack it up and take it back to the child later.
"I'll go back to the village with Dad tonight and move all those things here. Then I can really sleep peacefully from now on."
Zhang Guoqing nodded. "Okay. We have a car anyway, so we don't mind being late."
"Let's go upstairs and eat something first. Your mother will be worried soon."
Dad Zhang turned his hand five times with great interest. Seeing that the hole above was open, he secretly thought that he would wait until there was no one around before pulling his wife over to take a look. It would be really fun!
Zhang Guoqing reminded him, "Dad, if this mechanism fails and you're trapped inside and can't get out, look here. This is the main switch. Just keep pulling the chain. When it reaches the end, go up to the big stone slab and kick it three times. It will work again. Jiaojiao and I have tried this several times."
He had to remind him of this, otherwise if his parents were locked up one day, it would be a big deal.
"It's okay. Just come in normally. I won't touch the one inside. Just wave your hand."
This is also a solution. Zhang Guoqing nodded, watched him go up the stairs, and extinguished the two oil lamps.
After Zhang Guoqing finished eating the noodles, his father, who had locked the gate of the courtyard, immediately asked his wife to unlock it.
The family of three stood in the basement of the kitchen, and Zhang Guoqing didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He looked around and found that his parents had hardly used it in the past six months.
"Mom, you should eat more often. These things will spoil easily if left for too long. Especially don't even think about sending this meat to me. I plan to get up early tomorrow morning and go to the mountains to get more food for you and my dad to supplement our nutrition."
"What nonsense! The meat we have in the city is so scarce that it's barely enough to fill our teeth. Just take it back with you after you've beaten it. If it weren't for the embarrassment of always having Xiaomi carry things for you, Mom would have asked her to bring it to you long ago."
Zhang Guoqing understood this all too well. Especially now that they had moved further from the bus station, he felt a little embarrassed every time a grown-up girl had to carry so many bags to send on the bus.
Oh, you mean sending a package? It's not like there's no other way. It would be a miracle if he was willing to spend that kind of money!
"Mom, there are mountains in the capital too, and I can hunt game there. Plus, I can buy eggs from Aunt Qian, and they're not expensive. It's a real treat."
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Zhang Guoqing pulled the cart from the yard to the kitchen door, moved things out of the cellar and put them on the cart, then covered it with torn sacks of firewood.
After a while, only a small amount of spare supplies were left in the kitchen cellar, and Zhang Guoqing began to work on the new basement.
Like Zhang's father, Zhang's mother never imagined there was such a large cellar beneath the vegetable patch. From now on, she no longer has to worry about having nowhere to hide her things.
"Mom, I'll go buy some ice later. Do you see these two big water vats? They can easily store three to five hundred kilograms of meat. Let's eat fresh meat instead of pickled meat. I see how hard it is for you to do that work all the time, pickling and drying, and then you have to be careful not to let outsiders see you."
"I'll prepare some good ingredients for the winter. You and my dad shouldn't go out during the winter, and we can make more dumplings and alternate them with these noodles for midnight snacks. On other days, when you don't feel like moving, just make some vermicelli noodles, have a hot pot, and drink some ginseng wine. That's how life will be comfortable."
Zhang's mother burst out laughing at what he said.
"Dad, Jiaojiao and I have a lot of stuff stored in the backyard of our hometown. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to come back this year, so we planned to tell you and my mom later and bring them over together tonight."
"Take it back. Look at it yourself. There are so many things. Can your mother and I use them all?"
Zhang Guoqing smiled and looked around the basement. Here, he could speak freely without worrying about anyone outside the walls. He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Dad, the situation isn't optimistic this time. If I'm not mistaken, chaos will soon break out."
Zhang Dad was immediately awakened from his joy at his son's return. He thought that letting his child say that would only make the situation worse. He subconsciously felt around and realized he hadn't brought his pipe.
"Talk to Dad about it."
Zhang Guoqing patted the nervous mother Zhang comfortingly and smiled, "It's okay, Mom, I'm here."
"Um."
"Dad, don't be nervous. All the schools in the capital are now closed, even the safe schools can't avoid it. And what are they making trouble for? It's still the same gangster problem."
"This wave will be even more serious. Besides these black elements, anyone with a questionable background, such as former patriotic capitalists, those with relatives abroad, or even their own teachers, will be targeted by these students if they have even the slightest problem."
"I'm afraid even those high-ranking families won't be able to escape. Even in the future... I guess even people with a background like ours won't be able to speak freely. Otherwise, accidents could happen at any time."
Father Zhang frowned, "When school starts again, those kids won't have time to make trouble."
Zhang Guoqing gave a helpless smile. "Dad, what do these brats know? They're patriotic, but you forget that if things get out of hand, some people will inevitably take advantage of the situation. That's the scariest thing."
Having said that, Zhang Guoqing gave his father some time to reflect. As for the rest, he would take his time. As things developed, no one was blind and there was nothing they couldn't see.
"You can keep these things and use them slowly. I'm worried that if I want to send anything back later, I'll have to send it back little by little. Those are wine and dry goods, and some cloth and cotton. They can be stored."
Zhang's mother glanced proudly at her husband, who was still deep in thought. What are you thinking about? If you don't understand, just ask your son. Look, just when she was worried about having nowhere to hide something, her son Xiaowu had already prepared it.
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