Chapter 43
It was not difficult to borrow a round winnowing basket from the Chen family. The Chen family had two large round winnowing baskets. There was nothing to dry at this time of year, so some harvestable vegetables could be hung on the hemp rope in the yard to dry.
Chen Ning was too young, so he was only responsible for delivering food to Chen An. Qin Fangniang helped deliver the other round dustpan to Sang Luo's house. The villagers who were eating outside the house after dinner saw it and remembered that Sang Luo had also bought two at noon. They exclaimed, "What do you need so many round dustpans for?"
Sang Luo smiled and replied to this stranger woman, "Let's dry some bracken and store them, or we will have nothing to eat in winter."
Everyone: Oh, yes, it seems that Mr. Sang doesn’t know how to farm, so he can only dry some wild vegetables and store them.
"You still have to know how to grow vegetables. You can still grow some more at this time of year. If you don't know how, you can ask Fang Niang."
This was warm and well-intentioned, Sang Luo thanked her with a smile.
Those who had never had any interaction with the villagers before seemed to have gradually integrated into the village.
Qin Fangniang watched with a smile and helped Sang Luo deliver the things. She neither went into the house nor asked any more questions. She looked at the vegetable garden behind Sang Luo's house, and seeing that there were already a few pieces that could be used, she went home.
…
The fifteenth day had just passed, and after nightfall, the moon hanging in the sky like a silver plate especially showed its presence, and the moonlight fell like silver frost.
The door of the thatched hut was closed and a fire was burning inside. The firelight illuminated the room very brightly. Occasionally, the burning wood made a slight crackling sound, which compared with the silver frost all over the ground outside the house, made the room look even warmer.
Sang Luo brought her two children and made sour jujube cakes under the light of the fire.
The fruit I have known since I could walk and run, after simple processing, has become a completely different appearance in my hands. This feeling is still very novel. After melting the sugar and kneading it, Sang Luo smiled and said, "It can be eaten now. You can pinch a ball and try it yourself. The taste is different from the final taste after drying."
It was something made with sugar and sour jujube. Shen Ning's mouth was already watering before he even started eating it.
The unformed sour jujube cake was soft, but with a lot of maltose added, it had a sour and sweet taste. The brother and sister each grabbed a piece in their hands and ate it with great relish.
“It’s really delicious, someone will definitely buy it!”
“What does it look like when it’s dried?”
Sang Luo smiled and placed the washed winnowing baskets on the table, one in each hand, and let the two children watch the sour jujube cakes slowly take shape. Then she placed the two winnowing baskets on the branches of two trees outside the house, and then let the two children pack up and go to bed.
The nights in the mountains were gradually becoming less hot, so Sang Luo simply made the magic tofu, then simply packed up and prepared to go to bed.
The two children slept on their sides against the inside of the bed, leaving more space for her on the outside. Chen Ning slept in the middle, lying on her side. Sang Luo gently carried her to the outside, and then she lay on her side to sleep.
…
It was a busy day, but Sang Luo didn't know that she had become the topic of conversation between the Shi and Lu families before bedtime tonight.
About the house, about the food, about her way of doing things, about the Hu bing she brought back today for the group of children, Hu Zi and Er Niu became the most envied objects of the brothers in the family today.
By the second day, the child labor team had grown from nine to twelve people, which stunned Shen An and Shen Ning.
Shen An pulled Hu Zi and Er Niu aside: "What's going on?"
The two friends scratched their heads awkwardly: "That's right, let's go home and tell your sister-in-law that she bought us Hu bing to eat during the day."
Chen An: "...But I don't have any Hu bing to eat while working here. My sister-in-law buys them for me occasionally."
If they all came for the Hu Bing, they could go back quickly. He doesn't need so many people, right?
Hu Zi quickly explained: "No, I told them clearly that there is no reward, and my grandfather has also taught them a lesson."
Otherwise, there wouldn't be only three newcomers from the two families, because the younger ones at the back who are obviously unable to work are suppressed by their parents and grandparents and are not allowed to come here. Those who come are older and can really help.
Moreover, Hu Zi's eldest and second brothers, and Er Niu's eldest brother, are all boys of the same age as Chen Ershan. They came here today not to open up the land, but to help Chen Ershan dig mud and make bricks.
On the other side, Shi Erlang was explaining to Old Man Chen, "The younger ones from our two families heard yesterday that Hu Zi and Er Niu had eaten Hu Bing, so they all wanted to come over today. But how could they do that? We suppressed our decision. As for the three older ones, Uncle Lu and I discussed letting them come with us. We don't need to worry about their meals. We just let them come over for an hour every morning to help dig the mud over there. It would help us speed up the progress so that the house can be built earlier and we can rest for a few days before the busy farming season."
Old Man Chen nodded and said, "That makes sense. We are a little pressed for time."
The busy farming season can also make people exhausted. He thought for a moment and said, "If your son is willing to work, he doesn't have to avoid mealtimes and only work for an hour before going home. If he can't bear the hardship, he can just help out here like my Erlang and eat here. I'm still the one who makes the decision. I'll talk to Alie's wife about it. She will be happy and won't think it's inappropriate."
After this period of contact, Old Man Chen also got to know Sang Luo's character. He originally planned to call more people, but was afraid of attracting attention. In the end, he only called the Shi family and the Lu family. Now the children of these two families came to help. Although they are only teenagers, they can work well and can serve as half-laborers at home. The work of digging mud and making bricks can be completely handed over to these boys, and they can start digging the foundation today.
Shi Erlang and Lu Dalang looked at each other, hesitating whether to respond or not.
It is common to help people build houses in the village, but this is unprecedented for young boys. After all, they are not adult laborers, but they may not eat much less.
If you really do this, it would be a bit unfair.
Lu Dalang thought about what his father had told him to do in the morning, asking a few boys to help him. His original intention was to make friends with Sang Luo. If he really did that, making friends would turn out to be taking advantage of her. Thinking of this, he shook his head and said, "Uncle, I don't think it's necessary. We calculated that these boys can help dig mud for more than an hour, and the time is about right."
When Shi Erlang saw that Lu Dalang refused, he also shook his head and refused.
Old Man Chen looked at the two of them and said without saying anything more: "Get to work first, and we'll talk later."
When Sang Luo comes back in the afternoon, he will ask her what she thinks.
…
Sang Luo's intention was naturally good. She didn't want too many people from the village to come and help, and also because she was cooking at home, she didn't want to attract attention.
But if it is the Shi family and the Lu family, they already have several, so why would they be afraid of these three little boys?
Old Man Chen laughed when he heard this: "I think you are willing to do it, but they think that a young boy is not strong enough to help build the house, and they eat as much as adults, so they think it is a bit of a bargain, so they are not willing to agree."
Sang Luo curled her eyes when she heard this. Anyone who has a good relationship with the Chen family must be a good person indeed.
She smiled and said, "Then I'll go talk to Uncle Shi and Uncle Lu. My family was originally known to be very poor. They are willing to help us build the house because they are helping us. We are from the same village, so why would we care about such details?"
Old man Chen smiled and said, "That's the truth."
If you really start to weigh and quantify everything, you won't be able to make many friends.
The two of them talked after they walked a distance away. After talking to Old Man Chen, Sang Luo went to Shi Erlang and Qi Dalang. She always spoke with a smile and treated people sincerely. Shi Erlang was better, but people like Lu Dalang, who had a similar personality to Chen Youtian, could not withstand a few words.
It wasn't long before the matter was settled.
After she left, Lu Dalang was still a little confused. Chen Youtian, who was processing wood, smiled and reminded him: "What are you standing there for? Tell your Hu Zi to go back and call the three boys."
Lu Dalang responded in a daze, then came to his senses and hurriedly called Hu Zi.
A few more boys were added to take over the work of digging mud and carrying mud to make bricks. Of the five adults, except for Chen Youtian who was unable to do so at the moment, the other four were digging the foundation, so the progress was fast.
The foundation, more than half a person's depth, was dug out in just two days. When Sang Luo came back from the county on the third day, Old Man Chen and Shi Dalang and others had already started building the wall.
It was the first time that Sang Luo saw with her own eyes how adobe houses were built.
A set of wooden boards are fixed on the foundation to form a frame groove on all four sides. The mixed yellow clay is filled in and then filled up again. Then a very heavy tool is used to tie the four corners. Four strong laborers work together to lift and lower the clay, repeatedly pressing it until the clay is compacted in the template. Then the template is removed and the loose soil becomes a solid piece. The next wall is started in the same way. ①
Rammed earth, rammed earth, this is how it is done.
From Old Man Chen, Sang Luo learned that this is called banzhu.
Two days later, the main outlines of the kitchen, bathroom and the entire front yard wall were completed. The adobe bricks made by the teenagers were put to use. Yellow clay and mud were mixed together to build the walls. In just a few days, the kitchen and bathroom were built, and the doors and windows were finalized. The only things left were to put up the beams, set up the poles, and lay the reeds and grass.
Apart from buying a few mats of reeds from the county, Sang Luo didn't have to worry about anything else. By August 22, the two small rooms and the front and back yard walls were all completed, and the walls had been smoothed with rice bran and mud.
The newly built mud house completely overturned Sang Luo's perception of adobe houses in the countryside. It was not ugly at all. In fact, because the yellow clay selected by Old Man Chen in the mountains was of high quality, the color was a simple red, which was really beautiful.
Sang Luo looked at the main house with a thatched roof. It had been built for who knows how many years and had only been simply renovated before people moved in. It looked too rough in comparison.
In any case, the house was completed successfully. The villagers at that time were really talented and even built the stove for her.
Except for the bed that he promised to make for Chen An, all the household items were ready, including doors, windows, tables, stools and a wooden table for placing things.
In the kitchen, even the wooden rack for filtering soy milk used in making tofu was made by Chen Youtian and hung on the beam.
Sang Luo roughly described to Chen Youtian what the wooden boxes for shaping and picking tofu looked like. Although Chen Youtian didn't know what they were for, he made them using the small pieces of wood left over from building the house.
In addition, she had been using the money she earned these days to buy household items bit by bit, and she had also bought the things that a normal family would need in the kitchen.
Sang Luo didn't say anything else. She asked Old Lady Chen to help her borrow the almanac from the head of the village and looked through it. She chose an auspicious day and wanted to invite the three families to have a meal, both as a thank you and to warm the house.
In the countryside around Qiyang County, because living conditions are not very good, it is rare to hold both the beam-raising banquet and the house-moving banquet. Usually, wine is poured on the beam-raising day, and when the new house is completed and ready to be moved into, the beam-raising and house-moving banquets are held together.
This auspicious day is not far away, it is August 25th.
By this day, every family in the village had to start the autumn harvest, but Sang Luo also said that there was no need to help with it. When they finished working in the fields, they could just come over for dinner.
Several families agreed, but how many of them would really come together? The oldest person in the family would come, and those who help with the housework would also come, maybe with a couple of children, and then a family would select a woman to help with washing vegetables and cooking that day.
Even this is quite lively.
There was another group of little guests, the children who had been helping to open up the land these days. In the field behind the house, Chen An had already started planting with the guidance of the uncles and aunts who had been working here these days. The children who helped to open up the land were considered great contributors, so they naturally could not be left out when inviting people.
Since they were all Chen An and Chen Ning's friends, Sang Luo handed the matter over to Chen An and Chen Ning to take care of it, which made the brother and sister very excited.
"Can we invite people to the feast, too?"
The people invited were a group of children.
"Why not?" Sang Luo said with a smile, "This is your home, and you have made great efforts to make our home what it is now, right? You can invite your friends who have helped you these days. If you have close friends who want to invite, you can also. Just tell me the approximate number of people first, so that I can make preparations."
Even though Chen An usually behaved like an adult and was calm and composed, when he heard what his sister-in-law said, all his calmness disappeared and his eyes smiled into crescents.
"Sister-in-law, just ask for help. My best friends are here to help me."
"Sure." Then he turned to ask Shen Ning: "A Ning, do you have any friends you want to invite?"
Shen Ning blinked: "I'll just ask the little girl."
She usually follows her second brother, and her best friends are also his friends. Apart from the little girl, she doesn't have any other particularly good girls to invite.
Sang Luo smiled and said, "Okay, I understand. You can go and inform your friends."
Shen An couldn't hold back his eagerness any longer: "Sister-in-law, then Aning and I will go now."
When Sang Luo nodded, she excitedly pulled Shen Ningfeng and ran away.
The author has something to say:
①The information is from Baidu. There are slight differences in the methods of building adobe houses in different places. I chose one of them to use in the article.
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