Before, when she lived in town, she didn't go out to play often; she spent most of her time with her third sister and grandmother.
The main reason was that she disliked those boys with snot bubbles running from their noses and didn't like hanging out with them.
But after coming to the countryside, she felt more and more that children of different ages should play with things appropriate for their age.
Although she is an adult at heart, every child has a childlike heart!
Being playful is human nature, not a bad trait.
I just feel that the girls in the village have it very hard. They grow up in families where most people prefer sons to daughters, and they have to do their own work at each age.
Unlike Xiao Jiu, who has been a freeloader for five years since coming here, and who has never complained and is even spoiled.
She almost forgot that she was a modern person.
Mainly because she has a doting older brother, a loving grandmother, and is pampered by her family, she has unknowingly started to treat herself like a child.
There she was, with a small cloth bag sewn by her grandmother slung across her front, filled with dry food, and a small bamboo basket made by her grandfather on her back, containing a water bottle.
Her brothers had already gone up the mountain, and she followed behind her younger daughters, excitedly watching the village with its rising smoke from the chimneys at dawn, the flat, green fields, the stream flowing down from the mountain, and the verdant mountain peaks that already felt the chill of early autumn.
He took a deep breath and squinted his eyes comfortably: "It smells so good. It's so nice to live in the village."
"Xiao Jiu, what's so great about living in a village? Towns are much better. They sell everything and it's lively. What can we buy here?"
The group of friends chattered excitedly about the fun and delicious things they had seen at the market in town, and they all turned around to look at Xiaojiu with envy.
"Xiao Jiu, your grandma is so good to you. Every time you go out, she stands at the door watching you until you're out of sight before going home. And your brother comes over every day to help you carry your bamboo basket. Unlike us, we don't come home on time, and we get scolded when we do!"
"That's right, Xiao Jiu, you're so lucky. Not only are you loved by so many people, but you also eat and dress better than us."
...
At first, she felt embarrassed when several children gathered around her, complaining about their unfair treatment and her good fortune. But after listening to them for a while, she started to feel awkward.
"No, please don't say that. How can you look down on your own family like that? You have to consider your own family situation. It's not that adults don't love their children, maybe they just don't have much time to pay attention to them? You've seen my family situation. All four of my older brothers are in school, and I'm the only one who stays with my grandparents. I'm not just a freeloader; I help my grandparents with whatever chores I can every day."
When Xiao Jiu noticed the disbelieving looks on everyone's faces, she suddenly felt a wave of helplessness wash over her.
Okay, the more you say, the more mistakes you'll make. Say whatever you want!
Actually, she didn't do anything special. She tried her best to eat the same things as them when she went up the mountain. It was just that something she said unintentionally was remembered by them.
For example, they might ask, "Your little basket is so delicate!" She would proudly reply, "Grandpa made it especially for me."
Such questions, as well as the clothes, shoes, and bag she was wearing—since they were made by her grandmother, she should proudly mention them.
As a result, they remembered it. When they saw their older brothers going to pick her up from all over the mountain to go home, no matter how far away they were, these children couldn't help but feel a sense of comparison. It's understandable, though. They can only say that she is really lucky to be so pampered. If they knew that she wasn't their biological daughter, they would probably be green with envy.
Fortunately, Xiao Jiu is quite practical in her work. She is not stingy with her peers. If someone is not full, she will share her vegetable dumplings with them, since she doesn't like to eat that stuff anyway.
Sometimes when I fall behind others, I'll secretly grab a handful of peanuts from my online space to fill my stomach.
There are plenty of wild vegetables on the mountain, mainly because there has been a lot of rain this year, so they are sprouting up one after another, which makes Xiaojiu, who loves to dig for wild vegetables, very happy.
She usually throws things into her storage space first, and then puts them into her basket when she's about to go home.
She picked wild vegetables and mushrooms alike, and her small basket, which wasn't very big to begin with, was filled up in no time.
She would leave around 7 or 8 a.m. and come down the mountain around 10 p.m. If she hadn't seen her brother by then, she would let her friends go home first and stay on the mountain in a flat area where she could see them. In the meantime, she would eat an apple or a banana, keeping her mouth busy.
If there happen to be wild vegetables nearby, she will put her bamboo basket aside and diligently throw the vegetables into her storage space.
She collected more wild vegetables this way than she brought back in her bamboo basket.
When her brothers returned, she would take the opportunity to sneak onto the pile of wild vegetables they had spread out in the yard, thus completing her wild vegetable stockpile.
——
The three Cuihua sisters from Taoyuan Village brought home a basket of steamed buns made from three kinds of flour and a small jar of pickled vegetables from the town. These past few days, they've been working, eating the buns when they're hungry and drinking well water from their neighbors' bowls when they're thirsty. Since they haven't cooked, they're just making do with whatever they can find.
Their hard work paid off; in just two days, they not only tidied up the front and back yards, but also cleaned the house thoroughly.
What's usable is left aside, and what's unusable is chopped up with an axe and burned as firewood.
The house was fairly intact, except for two or three leaky spots; otherwise, it was much better than they had imagined.
However, the kitchen that was built outside collapsed.
There is water in the well, and it needs to be cleaned properly. This is something the three sisters can't do on their own; they have to wait for Tao Changyi and a few others to come and finish it.
The main gate wouldn't work either; the wall was too low and unsuitable for the three sisters to live in. They needed to build it three meters high to feel safe.
At the agreed time, Tao Changyi and his sons, along with the people from the carpenter's shop, arrived at Taoyuan Village in three handcarts.
It didn't cause a sensation, but at least it got their house surrounded.
The observant villagers hurriedly helped unload the things. After Cuihua finished telling Tao Changyi about the situation at home, she turned around and went to the gate to greet the villagers.
"My eldest niece's house has been temporarily cleaned up, but there are leaks in the roof, the kitchen has collapsed, the well needs to be cleaned, and the adobe walls need to be rebuilt. The exterior walls of the three main rooms also need to be plastered inside. It's not the busy farming season yet, so if anyone has time, they can come and help for a few days. We won't provide meals, it's eight hours a day, and we'll pay you one yuan a day. This money is for everyone to help haul clay. If anyone has wheat straw, please share some with us. We'll pay according to the amount, we won't take your help for nothing."
Then he explained why so many adobe bricks were needed.
“The wall has collapsed, we have to tear it down and rebuild it, it has to be at least three meters high. There are only three daughters living here, safety is the most important thing,”
After he finished speaking, many onlookers shouted that they wanted to sign up. In the end, Tao Changyi gave the decision-making power to Tang Cuihua. She knew better than him who could be used and who could not.
With the help of villagers, Tao Changyi would come over from time to time to offer cigarettes and act as an elder in the family to supervise the construction. In just five days, the courtyard wall was built, the leaky parts of the roof were repaired, and they even went so far as to replace the old tiles with new ones, using the old tiles to build the kitchen.
The main problem was that there were a lot of adobe bricks, so they simply built a kitchen on the east side.
After the well was cleaned, clean water seeped out. With the well, the three sisters no longer needed to walk through the streets and alleys to fetch water from the village's main well.
They also rebuilt a latrine and a chicken coop in the backyard. They don't raise anything else, but they definitely raise two chickens.
The entire wall enclosed the backyard as well, standing three meters high, and bamboo poles were even forked into the wall to see who dared to climb it.
The carpenter came to their house for three consecutive days to deliver doors. There were three main rooms, a front door, a back door, and a kitchen, making a total of six doors, some large and some small.
Two new stoves were built in the kitchen, along with two more cabinets. Tao Changyi also bought them earthenware pots, ceramic jars, and a small iron pot.
Why a small iron pot? Because in two years, well, every household will have to hand it over.
So enough is enough for them, which is what Cuihua herself requested. We wouldn't dare to make them big iron pots, it would be too expensive!
In just ten days after returning to the village, Cuihua's house was completely tidied up.
All three rooms, including the kitchen, were painted white. Two storage cabinets and a set of tables and chairs were installed in the main room, with more to be added if needed in the future.
The two bedrooms are spacious enough. Considering that only the three sisters will be living there for the time being, they built two sets of wardrobes and three sets of bunk beds in one room first. They plan to store miscellaneous items and food in the west room in the future.
The previous windows were all broken. The main room had no windows, but the two bedrooms and the kitchen each had a large window, which was covered with paper.
Glass is still unaffordable for them.
Including the cost of wood, handicrafts, labor, pots and pans, various furniture, wall materials, etc., it cost about seventy or eighty yuan.
The seventy or eighty yuan was mainly spent on stabilizing the old house, and on doors, windows, and furniture; nothing else was spent.
On the sixteenth day of the sixth lunar month, Tao Changyi and his wife, along with their three sons who were in elementary school, and all the necessities for their three sisters, including food for cooking, enamel basins, rattan kettles, kettles, and cutting boards, rented an oxcart and headed straight for Taoyuan Village.
The elderly couple and Xiaojiu didn't come, mainly because Xiaojiu looks too much like her three sisters, and they were afraid someone would recognize them. For safety reasons, they didn't come.
The three sisters knew why, of course, and didn't feel any regret at all. Instead, when they left, they asked the couple to tell them that once things were settled here, they would visit them at their respective homes.
With the support from the Tao family, the three sisters managed to save over three hundred yuan. Although they had no land, Zhao Lingli found Cuihua a job in town taking care of the elderly. It paid ten yuan a month, with room and board provided, and she could go home for two days a month.
The three sisters also efficiently planted radishes, cabbages, garlic, spinach, bok choy, and potatoes in the yard, and rapeseed in the backyard.
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