Chapter 54 Chapter 54 First update (two updates combined into one)...
I still have to think about the alchemy furnace and the instrument furnace. The most urgent thing is how to store the fruits in the yard. The temperature at night can reach minus ten degrees Celsius. The fruits will not go bad if left outside, but they will become frozen fruits after a night.
The storage bag is now full, and it is not realistic to put everything in. Besides, these are not spiritual fruits, and the storage bag cannot keep them fresh for long.
"It's not easy to eat fresh fruits." Lin Xinghuo sighed. Fruit trees are still ordinary trees, and the power of influence cannot be used all the time. These fruit trees have just borne fruit in an unsuitable season, so they need to wait a while to absorb and adapt to the benefits brought to them by the spiritual energy.
The caracal nibbled on a fresh peach. Even though he was the most advanced cultivator in the family, this was his first time eating a peach. He clearly loved the texture. Seeing him like that, Lin Xinghuo muttered, "There was another caracal in the story who also loved peaches, but they ate the immortal peaches that ripen only once every nine thousand years..."
Just as I was joking, I received a glare from the macaque uncle: "Where are your two boxes with the talismans?"
Lin Xinghuo didn't know why he suddenly remembered that thing, and he took out the box from the storage bag without hesitation. The tracing talisman embedded in the wooden box began to flash red as soon as it touched Lin Xinghuo's breath.
The caracal slapped the box with its claws and gave her a look of contempt. Lin Xinghuo patted her head and suddenly realized: "Stupid!"
It was true that he was blinded by one thing and his brain was frozen - the focus was not the tracing talisman, but the two wooden boxes containing the enemy's things. The wooden boxes were made of the heartwood of the yew that had turned into spiritual wood. The boxes were integrated into one, and there was a constant circulation of wood spiritual energy inside, which could keep the things inside from rotting and changing. Isn't this a ready-made food preservation box!
It was extremely difficult to cultivate that spiritual tree before, and it took several months, but now that she has the power and magic, it is much easier to obtain spiritual materials.
Wooden boxes, more than half a person's height, filled the entire western end of the room. The orange-red wood of the boxes had a warm, smooth texture, but when struck, it resonated like gold and jade, not even like wood itself. Zhu Longdan happily devoured all the remaining spiritual materials from the boxes, leaving Lin Xinghuo with a small bag of yellow-grade spiritual soil, which could be used to form the embryo of an alchemy furnace.
The brigade built brick and tile houses for every household, including Lin Xinghuo's mountain home. To the original layout of three main rooms, one bright and two dark, they added a room each on the east and west sides, making it a five-room main room. Lin Xinghuo's bedroom was now moved to the eastern end room. The south kang in the east side room remained, and the north wall was a wall-to-ceiling bookshelf, which served as a place to draw talismans and read, as well as a place for small animals to play and sleep. Since the room became larger, even the fox cubs stopped sticking to Lin Xinghuo at night, preferring to nest with the big tiger on the south kang in this room. Lin Xinghuo let them do what they wanted, always placing the candle gentian in the white jade basin on the table, which kept the whole house warm and the furry creatures even more comfortable.
In addition to the long table and rattan chairs, the main hall now boasted a round table and stools, giving it the feel of a prosperous home and entertaining guests. The west side room held the most utensils, as the family had developed a new habit of eating three meals a day after cultivating the spiritual rice. An entire room had been dedicated to this purpose. The kitchen, built by the caracal using earth magic, connected to the west side room. To create a pleasing visual experience for the cook, the caracal had the candle dragon burn the entire room, both inside and out, to create a glazed effect. The large ginkgo wood racks had been moved to the west side room, and this room was used for storage. The ginkgo branch that had sprouted thanks to Lin Xinghuo's enlightenment was transplanted to the backyard, hoping to become a spiritual tree.
Wei Chunfeng and others, who were once close to Lin Xinghuo, worried that she might feel lonely living in several empty rooms. But after seeing her sleeping with the animals in the courtyard yesterday, they stopped worrying. Today, after seeing the piles of yew heart trunks piled high in the west wing, Wei Chunfeng said, "We need east and west wing rooms, otherwise Da Huang and the others won't have anywhere to live."
Wei Layue asked if he wanted to sell some fruits for money. She could get Lin Xinghuo an unexpectedly high price for the fruits now, so that she could build the main house and the wing rooms at once in the early spring of next year.
This family truly had no shortage of money. Lin Xinghuo glanced at the new color of the earth in the courtyard and shook her head: she had been busy last night, and the caracal had been busy too, and now the entire courtyard was truly built on a mountain of gold and silver. Aside from the antique calligraphy and paintings that were kept in the storage bag, the gold, silver, and fabrics collected from the yellow fox's lair had been cleared out and hidden in the soil. The fine brocades had been cut and placed in the spiritual wooden boxes. The long wooden boxes at the bottom of the western wing were for these. Lin Xinghuo, feeling sorry for the mountain of silk, took out a few boxes of fine ones and had Zhu Longdan burn the remaining rags. The gold and silver threads in the brocade actually condensed into two fist-sized gold and silver nuggets...
Lin Xinghuo felt the deflated storage bag and was filled with energy. It was time for a new phase of saving. "I'll keep one of each of these fruit trees and plant the rest on the riverbank near the Songwazi River."
Huang Dazhuang and the others were there for this job, and they nodded immediately. "The mud house over there has been built. Dazhu invited Uncle Cen back last night in the dark, and he's now leading the people from Liangzigou to thatch the house."
The members of the commune had the camphor trees used to thatch the houses made into straw mats in advance, so that the thatching could be done much faster and could be almost finished today, so as not to delay the relocation of the county's labor reform farm tomorrow night.
But plans could not keep up with changes. When it was already dark, Xiao Chen came from the county on a bicycle and said that the labor camp would move at midnight that night and everyone had to move in early tomorrow morning before going to work.
How could a newly built house be habitable? How could one heat the house when even the kang hadn't been built yet? The captain was in such a dilemma that he could only ask Lin Xinghuo for help.
*The next day, just before dawn, a tractor full of people stopped at the pass on the west slope.
This time even Director Zhang, the top leader of the county, came. The tractor did not enter the village, and the old branch secretary, the team leader and Lin Xinghuo were waiting there to meet it.
Director Zhang jumped out of the car cover, his military coat was blown through by the cold wind. He stretched out his frozen hands and shook hands with the old branch secretary: "Secretary Chen, thank you! Thank you!" He only gave the other team a few days. It was really not that the county was trying to make things difficult for him.
He Qing stamped his foot and whispered, "Those guys are making a real fuss! They've really incited a whole bunch of students and young workers. If we don't move, we'll be stuck over there!" A group of people were clamoring to parade someone through the streets, and their first target was a large landowner from pre-liberation Song County. But there were only a handful of people in the county who could be singled out for struggle. He Qing and his friends were worried that these kids would quickly remember the labor camp on the edge of the county, so they didn't waste any time and sent Xiao Chen to report it.
Director Zhang rubbed his face, glanced at the old men who were cuddling in the truck bed and dared not get off, and felt a pang of sadness: "Can we ask our members to help dig some dugouts?" If there were no mud houses, a dugout that could shelter from the wind and snow would be enough. He would find a way after they got through this winter.
Huang Dazhuang was stunned, then he remembered that Xiao Chen was in a hurry to travel and was tired and cold and fell down. He had a high fever last night and couldn't get up yet. No wonder the leader didn't know that the house on the other side of the valley had been built.
"The house in the valley has been built." Huang Dazhuang was not good at showing off to his superiors, so he just said this dryly.
So fast! Director Zhang's heart sank before he could even be happy. He worriedly wondered if this mud and thatched house could withstand the coming heavy snow. But he also knew the task was too urgent and too heavy, so he didn't say a word of doubt.
Time waited for no one, so Director Zhang ordered the driver to help the people out of the truck bed. A tall, thin, gray-haired man in his fifties jumped off the tractor first and then helped the driver pick up the people. Only then did the three people from Buxian Village notice two children, about five or six years old, wrapped in military coats, in the middle of the truck bed.
Huang Dazhuang hurried forward to help carry the child down, and also helped to carry down the thin elderly people who were unable to jump down.
These people had very little luggage. Apart from the cotton-padded clothes they wore, each person only had a small straw bag in his hand, and they didn't even have a patched bag.
"I'll find a way to transport the bedding after it's laid out." Director Zhang said. The bedding took up too much space. This tractor couldn't hold so many people and luggage. It would be too conspicuous to use another one. In fact, next time when delivering the luggage, Director Zhang couldn't use a car. He would probably have to use a horse-drawn carriage to transport it quietly.
Looking at the faces of these people, one could guess how tattered their bedding was. The old Party Secretary said, "We still have some old cotton and felt we've saved from years past in our brigade warehouse, which can provide temporary relief." Farmers were frugal, and even though the cotton harvest was good this year, they couldn't bear to throw away the gray, clumping old cotton. The better ones were used by each family, while the worst ones were piled up at the brigade, hoping to use them in straw curtains and hang them on the doors and windows of the collective housing.
The old man's "temporary use" naturally meant that he would replace it after it was finished. Director Zhang, however, thought it was just a temporary loan, and even so, he was very satisfied. He shook the old man's hand and thanked him repeatedly.
The old Party secretary said nothing more. He still needed to see if these people were innocent people who had been wrongly accused. The old rule in Buxian Village, dating back to its founding, was that "only those who had made contributions could be settled." While these people didn't need to be allocated housing plots, they still had to make contributions to deserve new bedding.
More than fifty people supported each other and stood in the windward area. Director Zhang and others looked at the old branch secretary, waiting for his arrangements.
The big bell at the new brigade headquarters was rang out throughout the village by Accountant Wang, which meant that he had summoned all the members to the brigade headquarters and asked them to get things done quickly.
"Xiao Lin?" asked the old branch secretary.
Lin Xinghuo nodded and whistled. Soon everyone heard the sound of hooves hitting the ground.
Director Zhang looked at He Qing and asked, "Does the Buxiantun Brigade raise a lot of horses?" However, this place was originally a mountain retreat where the landlords raised horses. Their commune is still called Fangmaji, so having a few horses is not too surprising.
It's not a horse! How could a horse have such momentum?
He Qing had seen a moose pulling a cart before, but he was in such a hurry the last time he arrived that he hadn't even had the chance to sit on one and experience it. When he heard this, his eyes lit up and he urged Director Zhang, "Old Zhang, come on, let's open your eyes!"
"This?" Director Zhang looked at the cart pulled by eight strong and tall moose, and He Qing who was about to sit on the cart with great enthusiasm. In his life, he had never seen such a powerful big creature pulling a cart.
"Where's the coachman?" Where's the coachman?
"Why so many questions!" He Qing rolled his eyes and urged everyone to get in the car quickly.
The head moose snorted cleverly, and the moose in a row began to accelerate slowly. Their hooves stepped lightly on the dirt road, surprisingly steadily.
After the deer cart started moving, even the two little kids who had been huddled in their military coats without saying a word stuck their heads out to look at it curiously. He Qing rubbed their little heads and introduced the person sitting on the first cart to Lin Xinghuo and the other two.
It turned out that the two children were not just five or six years old. The older one was about to turn nine, and the younger one was already seven. One was Lao Ning's grandson, and the other was the posthumous child of Lao Ning's nephew. Because of insufficient nutrition, they grew up thin and small. Lao Ning was the old man who jumped out of the car first. He was one of the first senior cadres to be sent to the cadre school farm for labor reform. His only son was also implicated and transferred to the most difficult place in western Xinjiang to guard. Later, his daughter-in-law cut ties with her son and sent her grandson, who had just turned three, to him. His nephew's situation was similar, but after his nephew died on the southern border, his ex-niece wrote to ask for this son who had become the child of a martyr. Lao Ning was very stubborn and would rather save money to feed his nephew than send the child back to his mother who had remarried and had children.
His former niece-in-law never wrote to him again after she got half of the pension, but his former daughter-in-law would still send him some things every New Year.
"This old Ning is a tough guy!" Director Zhang said with a smile, "We can ask him to do any work that the Dongli Brigade can do." As long as we give him more food, he can feed his two children.
Among these people who were reformed, there were two people in the lead. One was Lao Ning, who was obviously from a military background, and the other was a gentle old man named Fang Tongjian. Fang Tongjian was once an academic authority with a profound family background. He had made great achievements in history, cultural relics, ancient Chinese literature, etc. However, he was overthrown when the movement started. It was only after he was transferred to the Song County labor reform farm that he escaped from the days of being criticized and wearing a dunce cap every day.
These two people were very perceptive. Since they got on the moose cart, they were not as nervous as they were on the tractor, especially Fang Tongjian. He even began to believe He Qing's exaggerated words that he told them privately that they had found "a paradise".
The further into the village they went, the more relaxed everyone felt. This village was so neatly built, with so many brick and tile houses. The deer cart didn't take the main road past the brigade headquarters, but instead took a smaller path around the workshop area. Director Zhang gazed at the large houses and courtyards with large chimneys, grabbed He Qing, and said, "Is this the collective workshop you were talking about?" It was just as He Qing had said. Unlike the small workshops in the village, it was more prosperous than the commune.
The fields located in the northeast of the village stretched as far as the eye could see. It was obvious that the land had been leveled and plowed in time after the autumn harvest. When the deer cart slowed down to turn a corner, Lao Ning leaned over the frame and scooped up a handful of soil.
Director Zhang quickly grabbed half of the soil from his hand. The two of them rubbed the black soil in their hands, looked at it carefully, and even smelled it. This time, even Lao Ning spoke up: "Good soil!" If they cultivated it well, they would definitely have a good harvest.
He Qing pointed to a ditch-divided area to the side and said, "This is the experimental field that was approved earlier. It's a full 150 mu."
It was not until we passed the experimental fields that the scenery became more and more desolate as we went east. The atmosphere in the cars behind us, which had just relaxed a little, became tense again. The glimmer of hope that had just risen in everyone's heart was almost blown away by the biting cold wind.
Lao Ning and Fang Tongjian were fine. Being remote had its advantages. As long as the land was fertile, there was no need to worry about people starving to death.
"Oh my God!" No one expected that the first person to scream in surprise was He Qing. He grabbed the old branch secretary's hand, but looked in the direction of Lin Xinghuo. His lips trembled before he asked vaguely, "This forest?" There was no such a big forest when he came on the 1st. Judging from the height of this tree, it must be more than ten meters, right?
The old branch secretary said cheerfully, "It just so happens that there are some saplings left for replanting in the mountains. Our Doctor Lin brought people to plant them in front of the farm a while ago." The terrain on the other side of the valley is low, and one can see into the yard at a glance from the hill over there. It is not convenient to build the wall too high, so Lin Xinghuo simply planted some ordinary yew trees there.
Secretary Chen was being vague. When was that earlier? This shouldn't be called a sapling, right?
Others who didn't know the previous situation didn't understand, but He Qing knew it in his heart. Minister He was surprised and happy. He was surprised that Lin Xinghuo's ability had improved again. He was more happy than surprised. Now he was actually glad that he hadn't had such bad luck when he signed the contract.
After passing the fir forest, there was a vast area in front of us. The dry grass and thorns on the ground had been burned. The cart even passed by two square deep pits, which seemed to be dug ponds.
This puzzled Director Zhang. "Is this wasteland that was originally being cultivated?" Otherwise, it couldn't be so bare, right? Besides, as long as the Songwazi River didn't change its course, this area would be the perfect fertile farmland.
The three people from Buxiantun all had smiles on their faces, and they just brushed off the sentence with a smile.
The yard was built on the side of a fir forest. Nearly fifty people who got off the deer carts were a little lost looking at this large yard with earth walls and guard houses. Director Zhang was increasingly convinced that this was the place that the brigade was going to reclaim and build.
Now he was relieved about the quality of the house.
The compound occupied five mu of land, with only two rows of mud and thatch houses built in four rows on the northern side; the rest was bare. The mud and thatch houses were not very tall, but you could tell the thatch on the roofs was newly covered. The thickness of the thatch alone brought smiles to the faces of these people who had endured so much hardship.
Until they came closer, supporting each other, Director Zhang was the first to go in and take a look, and the smile on his face froze - there were eight rooms in a row, with small rooms on both ends and four large rooms in the middle, but the small rooms were also divided into inner and outer rooms, which was considered to be built very thoughtfully, but where was the kang?
Even if there was no time to repair the kang, why was the stove in the outer room so small, and why was there no kang hole reserved on the partition wall for heating?
The old branch secretary had not had time to look at it yet. Huang Dazhuang knew about it, but he just built it according to whatever drawings Lin Xinghuo gave him.
"Auntie, no, ahem," He Qing cleared his throat and gestured on the wall, "Comrade Xiaolin, did you forget to leave a kang hole here?"
Lin Xinghuo straightened his satchel, which had been twisted by the caracal pendant, and pointed to a shed built between two parallel rows of mud and thatched houses. There was a large gourd-shaped stove made of clay. "That's the stove. Light a fire and it'll keep both sides warm."
Director Zhang reacted immediately, stepped forward, patted the thick earthen wall, and asked in disbelief, "Is this a wall of fire?"
Old Ning was shocked: "All these houses have fire walls?" Don't bully him because he's ignorant. Even if he wasn't a scholar from a wealthy family like Fang Tongjian, he, a simple man, knew how much effort it took to build a fire wall with adobe! Adobe couldn't compare to bricks, and mud was not cement. If a fire wall built with these two materials wanted to prevent smoke from leaking, it would take more than twice as many adobes as an ordinary earthen wall. It also required the skill of an experienced craftsman to smooth the wall. Even if the villagers built their own houses, they wouldn't spend so much money. Basically, they only built a fire wall between the main hall and the back room.
In fact, Fang Tongjian really didn't know what adobe fire wall was. Before it was knocked down, he lived in a courtyard house with a boiler and copper pipes for hot water. After it was knocked down, he could only sleep on a broken kang, so he had never seen a fire wall.
But this man was smart. He was the first to hit the nail on the head. He measured the thickness of the wall with his palm and said, "Should the fire wall be thicker?"
They weren't trying to argue, it was simply that the wall was almost as thick as the mud house they had lived in before, which made them puzzled.
This completely negated the caracal's labor; it was a shame he'd been busy all night! Nestled in his soft new satchel, the caracal licked his paws disapprovingly, even more reluctant to let these mortals witness his extraordinary splendor. Rubbing his furry face with his paw pads, the caracal felt at ease and fell into a deep sleep again.
Lin Xinghuo didn't explain any more. He just used the big hook to poke the compacted charcoal in the gourd stove. The red charcoal fire instantly became brighter, and then he could feel the warmth on the other side of the wall closest to the stove.
In fact, the fire had not been extinguished. This was because the new house was too damp, so Lin Xinghuo was drying the house.
Director Zhang leaned against the fire wall and said to He Qing, "It's even warmer than our radiator!"
He Qing took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and quietly knocked on the inside of the wall. It made a crisp sound like knocking on ceramics.
Lin Xinghuo knew that he had figured out something - after the caracal compacted the wall to separate the fire channel, it put the candle gentian in to burn it, but this time, in order to keep warm, only the inside was burned.
This fire wall is equivalent to a person holding a porcelain cup filled with hot water with his hands. How can the heat not be obvious? It is natural that the heat conducts quickly.
She gestured to He Qing to look at the rice husks piled in the corner of the room. Hadn't he had time to notice them? He Qing then added, "We came in such a hurry that we haven't had time to smooth the inside of the room. Let's smooth it out before we start the fire."
It was actually a fire wall! Nothing in the snowy province's winter was more precious than this. As long as it was warm, they could just spread some corn stalks on the ground and sleep! Sharing a boiler, how much firewood would that save? Wouldn't this be more comfortable than having a single room and a kang? The older people, in particular, were all teary-eyed. In the past, to save firewood, they'd just keep their rooms slightly warmer than outside, and as long as they didn't freeze to death, they'd just have a kang.
Before they even moved in, everyone was so excited that someone immediately went up to seal the stove again, fearing that any charcoal would be wasted. The uncle was surprised: "I've never seen a stove like this before."
Lin Xinghuo lowered her head, not letting anyone see her expression. This thing was a failed experiment in her alchemy furnace. She had originally intended to imitate the Eight Trigrams Furnace of the Supreme Lord Lao, but who knew she'd gotten into a fight with the caracal and ended up with a gourd? Fortunately, this thing worked perfectly as a furnace; it could hold the flame and burn charcoal thoroughly. That's why Lin Xinghuo didn't feel too bad about the yellow-grade spiritual soil she had wasted...
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The author has something to say: There will be two more chapters before midnight~
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